Michael Farrell has previously published prose poems in a raiders guide (Giramondo 2008). He coedited (with Jill Jones) Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets (Puncher and Wattmann 2009). His latest publication is thempark (Book Thug 2010). Contact: limecha@hotmail.com.

 

 

 

Contretemps

Red wine is certifiably itchy trying to get Linda to splash Sally  .  When Sally walks in wearing Brad  ’s   shirt  –  the one with the heather on it  .  What isn  ’  t a contretemps with those people  ?  It wasn  ’  t my fault I buried the drugs  ,  Sally said  , wilting the lettuce with hot oil  ,  Appalachian style  .  Glenda managed to join the tennis club  ,  only to find that Tony had left  ,  and had taken up croquet  –  or crochet  –  or Pinochet  –  or Pinocchio  –  or pinochle  –  or pineapple mastication for his health  .  Linda blamed everyone  .  Did you see Hal collapse at the piano  ,  with one of those pussy willow rib  –  ticklers on  ?  How much irony did you put in that drink  ?  he gasped  .  I am going to get me a slice of Brad  ’  s heather shirt  —  you see if I don  ’  t  !  A dog is here  ,  with a message for the cows  .  .  .  ‘  Drop dead  ’  ,  I think he said  ,  and when Angelo turned up shirtless on his motorbike  .  .  .  People started doing a bit of algebra in their front mashed potato  (  it was Halloween  ,  after all  )  .  (  Teenagers panting under the eaves and all that  .  )  They’ve got Supertramp playing on the green this year  ;  I don  ’  t know what respectable folkies see in  ‘ \ ’  ‘ / ’  them myself  .  They  ’  re no Yoko Onos are they  ?  Angelo turned the heat up by taking a hacksaw to the last baguette  –  as if there aren  ’  t kids to foster in his own village  –  or whatever they have up in those rainbows he lives in  .  The bridge fell on Hal  ’  s house last night  ,  but no one believed him so his grandmother was stuck there half the night  ,   with a girder holding her scalp in place  :  you could say  .  But how the bridge got there is anyone  ’  s business  .