Monday, December 27, 2004



Lindsay

A Vegemite toast drops onto the forest floor
where the easel slants / in dried tractor ruts / a snake's
ribcage fossilises consistently / a printed tortilla / a dry
knock repeating / under the ceramic planted lumber/
a syrup tablature tethering / broom planks / tree-stops /
the timber's warm ring / the tinny insects muffled in
amber / in a foliage of receipts / the mahout rides
the foam of undergrowth / a lizard-sinewy syntax
mucks-up his beak / off-course into the mulch /
he strikes and comes up with / a hairy toast /
a froth of leaves / a crust of cyclones / a pinch
of speakies on a Hessian screen / kiddies syncopating
the mahogany staircase / the mother-in-law crying in the kitchen /
the soufflé caves-in / the fruit-bat scratched night / the intermittent
frou-frou of muslin / the jawfuls of millefeuille / the hundreds
and thousands snowing gently on the Vegemite


Comments:
All this but no bosoms? Unless a mahout is an exotic species of bosom.
 
Perhaps not bosoms but Bomba the Jungle Boy on his trusty elephant. No humps either.
 
Talk about coincidence. Here's a snippet from an article I was reading just yesterday:

"A characteristic Liebling sentence is stoked with
an unexpected allusion snugly woven into complex
syntax, usually topped off with a striking image.
Here he is on a secondary corner man at Wiley’s
Gym in New York:

'His thin black hair was carefully marcelled along
the top of his narrow skull, a long gold watch
chain dangled from his fob pocket, and he exuded
an air of elegance, precision, and authority,
like a withered but still peppery mahout in
charge of a string of not quite bright elephants'."
 
That's really a coincidence. What is the probability of twice finding a short text which mentions both complex syntax and mahouts?

I wrote that poem in 1990.

Did you know that there are three degrees of separation between you and President Kennedy?

1. You have met John Tranter
2. He's mates with John Ashbery
3. Ashbery met briefly with JFK

The Lord moves in mysterious ways.
 
Wow! Plus, I've used JFK's airport!
 
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