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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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