Javascript is either disabled or not supported by this browser. This page may not appear properly.
Brian Flaherty, New Zealand
Bio:
Brian is one of three editors of the highly regarded New Zealand Poetry and literature site "Trout".  Blackmail Press regards  Trout as one of the finest electronic poetry publications online.
Bracelet
(for Ed)

It was a cataclysm. Thosands injured.
the final death toll unknown. Rescue teams

were called for, soup kitchens erected.
Five months they slept on the street,

pissing in the rubble. Her neighbour, the butcher,
all his family lost, would play in the evenings

on a cracked saz, one string missing.
kesik, hoyrat, bozlak uzunhava. Till his skin

would tear, leaving a pattern of blood
petals on the varnished mulberry.

One evening when the autumn stars ringed the town,
the saz disintegrated in his hands and he wept

uncontrollably, wrapping the strings around his wrist.
Around and around. Cutting off the flow.




Hair

At that time my life was empty of inspiration.
I found myself in an unfamiliar city, hair,

grown too long, reaching almost to my shoulders.
Seeing a woman, people rushed up to me

in the street, meaning to injure me,
or discredit me to the police.

A hot wind rose suddenly, sapping
all remaining strength, slapping the faces

of passersby with a swirling dust.
A call to prayer wavered across the rooftops,

arousing a strange feeling of intoxication...
My worried friend approached from an alley.

Beckoned me into a sandalwood doorway.
It is not safe here. Come. Come.




Locomotive

This living is made of inseparable things.
At a junction in the forest, a signalman stands

to attention on an upturned bucket.
Green flag raised above turbaned head, red by his side.

The locomotive slices open morning like fresh papaya,
spinning wheels in concentric circles - sequence

and consequence. The woman, all confidence lost
in language, repeats herself: jamais, jamais, jamais.

Her feet bandaged with newspaper,
her bright eyes rimmed with charcoal.

I would like to make sense of these monsoon humours,
the rough weather of our bodies, but am defeated

by the problem of connections. My hands alone
pretending wisdom, hum the engine's metal paradise.


All works Copyright Brian Flaherty




BMP
nzpoetsonline
BMP
nzpoetsonline