word-dust dreaming

       
       
       
few nights back left work        
and turned left        
away from the home road        
went inland        
not even by choice      
stopped for hard liquor and heavy smokes        
kept driving        
me and the work truck        
both red with work-dust        
inside and outside        
drove until it felt far enough      
sun gone down and dead      
pulled up on a low rolling hill        
somewhere empty        
kicked the door open        
lay the seat back        
radio on        
tuned into the big footy game        
drank smoked drank        
let the stars rain starlight        
watched the ‘roos come out to drink it        
and once or twice an hour a vehicle would hammer past        
let ‘em come        
let ‘em go;      
metaphor for something      
metaphor for nothing        
more liquor more smokes        
words start to whisper        
keep drinking      
cast the spell        
get to where the poetry is        
take a piss in the dry grass        
look back at the truck      
shining out into nowhere        
burp fart drink again        
now fattening with words        
poetry dripping from my fingers        
beauty in the darkness        
darkness in the darkness      
the footy game becomes a stupid thing        
a stadium somewhere full of people looking inward        
their backs turned to the sky      
is why they are brave enough to yell      
so change the radio station        
to Blues long and low        
and then the words are everywhere        
tripping over them        
flicking my butts out in to them      
and the silence hears them too      
adds her own      
get the need to fill the world      
mumble-grunt a few ‘fucks you’s’        
to remember how        
grin ‘em into the ground      
not talking to anyone outside me        
fire the truck up to check the battery        
do a burn-out ‘cos fuck you again        
engine off lay back in the seat      
kill the radio dead      
words falling off my skin        
clearing away the dust        
cleaning away everything        
lay back and listen to the big empty land      
be a dot in it      
be nothing in it        
let her night songs sing      
the stars dripping words too        
while meteors streak to nowhere        
come and gone      
been and went        
and leave the wishes be        
vanity to put my needs on anything so beautiful        
drift drift drift        
the truck engine going cold        
night chill coming        
jacket on      
crack another can      
fade out to the silence        
feet up on the open door      
words laying a foot deep around me        
left them be      
gave them room      
loved them        
and left them dying      
in the dirt