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Loops
by jess Saturday, Mar 17 2018, 1:08am
international / poetry / post

a roller-coaster loops back
and above before speeding
forward tho the rails
always offer an apparent
forward motion

the mind loops back before
proceeding -- culture offers
a convoluted course to its inevitable destination

mind views the matrix of culture
from the top of the loop
it reveals a retrograde motion yet it appears
to be proceeding forward tho
moving backward

i was given two toy six-guns and a cowboy hat
when i was six tho these were foreign objects
in the slums of Darlo Sydney where i grew --
a pollution in Oz which incongruity
i remembered while i developed

i had no use for guns and idiotic cowboy hats
which symbolic directions jarred the magical paths
of Oz

an indigenous school friend casually remarked that
his uncle had walked from Melbourne to Sydney to see relatives,
this loop presented a different and astounding perspective --
who walks such a distance when trains, cars
and planes offer transport?

i learned that walking was more than simple locomotion
for the indigenous, which had walked the veins of this nation
for thousands of years --
the view from above revealed their tracks,
which roads and steel had overlain

i found one of those toy guns in the shed today

the Australian news on radio and TV is American
(wars) but i had learned to see and walk like an Australian

i move freely like a native through invisible veins to the
red heart and back to the coast of Australia

i remain out of sync with popular culture
looping back and above to see
before proceeding on my way