Luke Davies
from TOTEM POEM
Cobwebbed in a field near Yass a car once kept us warm
& when it rained, though we shivered with sickness,
there came a moment of perfect happiness, faces nestled
in the vinyl, sleep coming on, surrounded by metal
that in upcoming decades would oxidise to flakes.
Asleep at last, last of the valium, we came to know
a car too is a flower and pollen its decay.
In the dry air at dawn the cicadas kept still. The space
that mass sat in decided how mass was to move.
We dreamed of valleys of olive trees, silver side out.
The lions preened. We shivered with sickness and need.
A mechanic had told me how spark-paths from spark-plugs
would look, if you looked close enough, like mountain ravines
from the air. The deeper the groove the faster
the current. We shivered, this our habit, this flowing.
It was all a matter of looking closely. We saw
only objects, and not the things themselves. We tried
so hard but in an era you get locked into the trappings
of an era and all the trappings weigh a lot.
Takes years of dreams for trappings to dissolve.
In the yellow time of pollen I dreamed myself clear.
The sex vibe thing came off me like a god
& everywhere I looked: expansitude. The streets
becoming boulevards, my head held high I steered
a cracking pace and sparks came off my shoes.
God it was completely awesome. The pollen country
was exactly in the right place. Whenever I was in it
I fared well, but outside that the evil
things abounded. The places reeked. Some people
are just bad. It was then I knew that love
was the only godhead. And still the sparks came off those cuban heels.