antipoet

06 November 2008

Bakery Rant

and here we are now in this baked convergence of brittle bodies
in this sacred place of deliberate rock and new-skool artifice
all the red-dirt business and radical glitter and bronze medals
of apathetic bravery, this metaphor to the corporate slavery

we're waving hands at a vainglorious nebulous democracy
the birthright of a billion losers - we're shocked at this
and we raise our many skinny fists at the thick dead sky
at this global moment - a fascinator, a tool, a distraction
an excuse not to wake, not to imagine another world
is possible, here - in this room - right here right now

lets ride the waves - lets catch the sun
lets sell the house - lets buy a gun
lets hit the street - lets shift the mode
lets touch our skin - do it in the road
lets rip at the fence - lets hammer the walls
lets kick at the door - lets get insured
lets fix the thing - lets shout at god
lets eat the dead - lets wake up wake up

we run, we run, we run and hide our money in turgid mattresses
of economic disparity without thought for the battle-cry
of colour and heart and guts and flyers, flyers, flyers for change

yes we slice these kids into ribbons of confusion
with no recognition for the guerilla manifestos
and yr mental condition an addiction to the death:
another house, another car, another card, another grave

we give our resource pleasure to the man in the deserted places
with no recourses for the buried bodies
the trees - the rocks - the sand - the wind - the rush of wealth
of mouthfuls of money money money…

lets ride the waves - lets catch the sun
lets sell the house - lets buy a gun
lets hit the street - lets shift the mode
lets touch our skin - do it in the road
lets rip at the fence - lets hammer the walls
lets kick at the door - lets get insured
lets fix the thing - lets shout at god
lets eat the dead - lets wake up wake up

hey hey hey, lets dig a hole for the two-three-eight,
the two-three-eight, the two-three-eight…

lets drape this million-year old concrete flag over the bones
of my mouth, of yr mouth
of his and hers matching flag tattoos
on the scarborough shores we fight and flex,
kick sand in the faces of each other
and render all those less patriotic than us
on this beach - under this footpath - a river once ran
the slogan shit of kiss the flag or die
fuck off we're full

of racist cowards

not sittin on the fence - I'm tearin it down
not grabbin at the wretched throat of this town
not reachin for the end - of this radical sentence

lets ride the waves - lets catch the sun
lets sell the house - lets buy a gun
lets hit the street - lets shift the mode
lets touch our skin - do it in the road
lets rip at the fence - lets hammer the walls
lets kick at the door - lets get insured
lets fix the thing - lets shout at god
lets eat the dead - lets wake up wake up

antipoet - allan boyd
november 6, 2008

performed as 'sacrificial poet' at the WA final of the National Poetry Slam

also read by subaware with blac blocs following the slam...

23 October 2008

blac blocs at the bakery

15 October 2008

Kalgoorlie Poem

(This one was written in about half-an-hour and then performed over the phone during a radio interview on ABC Goldfields - October 15, 2008 on the Morning Show with David Kennedy. They loved it! It's on their blog)

Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
say it

a superpit* condition, a red yellow bowl of silky pear
a moon-sized, mass-mind hole in the ground, a nugget
going down town in the ripplin sun, my face an empty sky-mine
this easterly dust remembering all who trod this street
my economic reality, a hi-lux with the hubs in

Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
say it

this is the place this is the town
heat the back o my head with the hay street nouns
waking up to the sound of a goldrush city
we follow the pipeline the pipeline the pipeline*
hey paddy* give us a drink o this
vanish to the vast, vastness this
wangai* country this

Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie
say it

Kal…

----
allan boyd - antipoet
October 15, 2008

---

Some references:

Wangai: is the name given by themselves to the 26 Aboriginal groups of the Goldfields of Western Australia. It comes from the word meaning "Speaker".

Paddy Hannan: was a gold prospector whose discovery on June 17 1893 near Kal set off a gold rush in the area.

Superpit: This renowned Kalgoorlie-Boulder landmark is currently 3.5 km long, 1.5 km wide and 360 m deep, and will eventually stretch 3.9 km long, 1.6 km wide and reach a depth exceeding 500 m.

Golden Pipeline: is perhaps the world's longest water main - stretching from Perth to Kal, some 580Ks.