Title: Sport 23: Spring 1999

Publication details: Fergus Barrowman, November 1999

Part of: Sport

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Sport 23: Spring 1999

Geoff Cochrane

Geoff Cochrane

page 170

Beyond the Pale

Your face is broad,
familiar as light.
You're altogether
blonde-maned and modern.

Defied, I dream
an African surrender
(envenomed arrows,
spears and penis-sheaths),
the anxious gut-to-gut
of darkest betrothal.

page 171

Milestones

1
Between the city and me
was only an ancient door
I'd painted orange.

Mounting treacherous steps,
Peter Olds brought sausages and plonk.
The wardrobe contained
a thousand and one empties.
In the fullness of time,
someone would smash the big mirror.

2
My father dies;
I'm diagnosed as having … never mind;
my longing for a leggy journalist
is slowly starved to death.

Yes, where I heal I'm bland.
A coffee bar provides
festivity enough, my daily fix.
I read the blackboard chalked in limes and pinks:
Obey you thirst
Bacon and Eggs, $6.00
Extract me the soldier from the sputnik.

My melting moment tastes of garlic.

page 172

Elected Silence

When his breakdown occurred,
he took to wearing industrial earmuffs.
‘If I ever come right, Geoff,
we'll get pissed together
and sing some songs.’

The city is a catchment area.
An oblong Tartar god
shelters a frieze of kine.

Lying awake last night,
I listened to the cries
of the woman being screwed
by the swarthy Turk upstairs—
heartbreaking sounds, let's face it.