i could almost hear
the perturbation
inside his head
that unremitting repetition
of twelve
long
school years
indoors
underpowered
and i imagined
his dream car
filled with mates
knocking about
suburban streets
me thinking
he should be
on the open road
but he’d know
       he was still going nowhere

First published in ‘Ochre Ten’ an Anthology by Ochre Coast Writers, edited by Dr Steve Evans October 2020


desire lines

she
like he
loves to explore
the unfamiliar
accessing
behavioural boundaries
discovering and
interpreting
shared experiences
and while questions
drive her search
he, in response,
gently touches
those places
she cannot reach

First published in ‘Ochre Ten’
an Anthology by Ochre Coast Writers,
edited by Dr Steve Evans October 2020

i work with
testosterone fuelled
apprentices … mechanical;
i can feel the
dominant males -
hairs bristling
on my neck;
their careless ways
first through third year
diminishing by degrees
as they steel
themselves for
uncertain manhood

i watch
deft fingers
latch onto complex
production machines
laid open with
arrogant skill –

strict guidelines
for reparation;
sign-on/sign-off

indentured papers?

‘insufficient servicing’,
cry petulant maidens!

First published by Emerald Publishers (#1 of ‘3 workplace poems’)
in “Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal”,
March 2020

be aware

that

when you fall

you will clutch

at anything

to avoid

the unanticipated

hurt

of a guardian push

'coincidental' (

First published at POETRY PACIFIC: 3 Poems by Geoffrey Aitken

red earth\raw material\once forged\it is literal;

see the arc\feel the heat\shape the product\without mishap
know its strength - paternal and rigid;

leader in its field\stainless steel\unbeatable\hardened\toughened
and fully drilled;

australian mettle?

new age prattle!

i could almost hear
the perturbation
inside his head
that unremitting repetition
of twelve
long
school years
indoors
underpowered
and i imagined
his dream car
filled with mates
knocking about
suburban streets
me thinking
he should be
on the open road
but he’d know
         he was still going nowhere

First published in ‘Ochre Ten’ an Anthology by Ochre Coast Writers, edited by Dr Steve Evans October 2020