FEAST NIGHT

This feast night. Candy floss
by the plastic bag and hot dogs. Onions.
A swig of vodka
round the back of the Waltzer.
Scream if you want to go faster.
I touched his hand
on the twister and he touched mine back,
I think. Dangerous lights.
Someone is raging against the autumn dark
with bareknuckles.
A gang of lads
menace the dodgems. They swing
mallets. He fingers
her against the caravan. His breath
is hotter than whiskey
in her breasts and neck.
She notices
his fingernails have not been cut.

AT FOXTON DAM

It was June when we came to the fishing lake.

The midges were hazing the water for sex.

Fisherman sat at their poles in silence, deaf

to the blasts from the open-cast. It would change.

I showed him the plaque with the plans

for the nature reserve, said the hole

would be filled with marshland and heron.

No human would set foot beyond the barbed 

wire fence and patrolling guard. He said

he would like to see that, but I said, 'no,

it's off limits.' Instead, we scrambled

up the bank to the pit edge and looked down

at the diggers and trucks fetching slag.

SMALL TOWN AIRS

1.

What we breathe is smokeless

What we speak is news

What we breathe is chokeless

What we speak is blues

2.

I dreamt of a man with half a life,

half a house and half a wife

I dreamt of a man without a face,

without a mind, without a place

3.

Ring-a-ring-a-roses

A lung as black as night

Atishoo! Atishoo!

A shower of shite

Ashes in the graveyard

Ashes in the crem

Chuck us in the dustbin

Up pops them!