blackmail press 28
Joyce Parkes
Australia

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Kitchen - Charles Olsen
Joyce Parkes has published in Overland, Linq, Westerly,
foam:e, Cordite, The Best Australian Poetry 2005 (UQP)
and Meanjin among many other committed literary journals,
magazines and anthologies in Australia and abroad even
although she came to Australia on a boat carrying her accent.
The Drover’s Drive                                                      
                                                                            
In the final analysis a relative said. Such a lonely
spot, O Brad. There goes an odd bod a neighbour
noted – compared to whom the visitor floated.
Still at the party, one guest asked the other:
What do you do? About what, Drover responded
looking at their shining shoes. Excuse me! Warning
Drive to move out of the way. Time flies. If time

is always there, Drove & Drive come and go, then
surely, they move through time. It’s all in the mind.
A concept Drive is loath to discuss with the dentist.
The bottom line, the banker said. Not on my page,
the tenant came back. Black armband view of
history. An image used by a white son despite
the grief of the gun. With all due respect. Often

precedes callous calls. Cost effective Fence claimed,
twisting for nuclear power. While another guest
deigned to say Political Correctness, to win us
over. Even breathing is political the drover railed.
A level playing field (and Yours sincerely) the
drover later read with dismay. At the end of the
day – good evening, the drover smiled away.





Sketching Similarities                                              


Georgia loves to paint, so does
          Georgina — Georgia farewells

monochromes, so does
         Georgina. Cherishing primary

colours they welcome
         nuances, their brushes braving

spells on canvas, on line,
         having interpreted aspects of        

the Swan river, when later
        they felt impelled to include

images of North and South
         Perth including dawns donning

birth. Georgia and Georgina
         love to sketch from their respective

places alongside the river
         Swan on dense and dendrite days.    
        

       
The Temptation to Submit                                     
(With thanks to C. L.)

What kind of poetry do you like,
      an interviewer asked an interviewee
               on Radio National. I like good poetry
                       the interviewee told the microphone

where a likely listener had
       grown to note the grip of good,
               its gradient (compared to whom)
                       eventually understood. Whose

essence, effervescence, con
       amore, con moto accompanies
               a writer’s ostinato? Is the temptation
                       to submit that excellence resides in the

eyes of the dominant tribe
       valid, a folly or a temerity leading
               to an affinity for the sound of the
                       fugue? Noting the tension between

players and listeners in
       ovation and oration may
               be nudging notes neglected in
                       movements for a tomorrow with tremolo.