BillyMarshallStoneking2

Billy Marshall Stoneking

U.S.A

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Billy is currently the Head of the MA Programme (scripwriting) at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School, Sydney, Australia

The Lesson

(for BJ)

The stick arrow bounced off the screen-door

my older sister was standing behind.

I was the Indian. She was the settler.

Tearing down the steps,

she took the bow from my hand.

Why'd you do that? I said;

it didn't hurt you.

I looked into her face.

The treaty was over.

Don't you ever do anything like that

ever ever ever again, she said.

She broke the bow over her knee.

Sticks and string lay at my feet.

War paint smudged.

Back at the fort, she resumed

her chaise lounge, magazine and iced tea.

It was my first lesson.

After that,

I always felt sorry for the Indians

Fall

Half-asleep,

I fall in and out of your flesh.

We have given birth to memory.

Listen:

Genealogy is a complicated sentence;

You can hear the sound of loss-

an awkward moan dignified by weeping.

How many times have I knocked on your door,

turned back sheets that the sun might rise;

realized inheritance in a fingernail of moon.

I run towards your shadow,

believing it will save me.

Loping through the long grass

towards a stone wall where

once

you dreamed

I was naked in chains.

Scenery

I had to laugh -

you, telling me about

those houses for sale

on the hill

over looking the harbour,

big, plate-glass windows

facing the water;

&

all of them

with curtains.

Standing there,

over the tub -

speaking

of blocked views -

your naked snatch

in the corner

of my eye,

running your bath.

Photo Opportunity

After they'd tracked it

& cornered it

& killed it

& propped it up

against a tree

& stuck a cigar in it's mouth

(adding sunglasses for the right effect)

there was just enough light

to shoot a few pictures;

so they tooks turns

standing beside it,

laughing,

pulling silly faces;

it was the funniest damn thing

they'd ever seen.

It looked almost human.

Then Larry put his baseball cap

on its head,

and they laughed some more,

like men laugh

who aren't completely certain.

All works copyrighted Billy Marshall Stoneking 2001

Used with kind permission of the Poet

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