Minister for Flowers

gone
the minister for war
gone the guns,
the minister for rain and rivers
in conference
with minister for forest and
minister for music and poetry,
their round table talks of the blossoms of spring
of seeds and waters
of frogs and bees –
enter the minister for flowers
a prime minister,
she carries memories
of a bruised sky and a melting world,
she is our embrace
cradle to our children.
she is a radiance
to heal the torn heartland

 

 

The Vampire Club

dead dead undead alive
dead dead undead alive
going grey –
painting shadows under bloodshot eyes
putting on the powder –
they meet at the frozen food aisle
in the fluorescence
blue scribbled legs, scribbled arms
shopping lists tattooed along milk-white skin
blue words blurring beauty’s revenge,
ears plugged with music
with an iPod of howling wolves…
the hoodies are eating cake
in their dreams they’re eating Prince William and Kate
basting celebrities on a spit
they’re burning up in sunlight
in their dreams in their vampire dreams –
dead dead undead alive…
they’re on a waiting list for fangs
auditioning for slash
garbed in retro cape boots and trash
dressed to kill
in the fluorescence
vamping in the wall of mirrors
no face no fangs no eyes
no sad reflections –
dead dead undead alive
going grey –
in a cloak of ice
a cup of butcher’s blood
a mouthful of graveyard dirt –
the ghosts are crowding
dancing late night dreams along cemetery road
and back in the box
before dawn,
dead happy

DavidHallett cowboy HiRes

David Hallett has been writing and performing his poetry since the mid 1970s, he is host of two of Australia’s longest running poetry shows in Byron Bay and Lismore. His poems trace war and peaces, the maelstrom of climate chaos, and the spin of markets, shopping malls, and love. Twice winner of the Poetry Olympics at the Sydney Writers Festival, and winner of the 2019 Reciter of the Year award at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. In 2020 David will be publishing ‘Out of the Blue’ his first collection of poems in the past ten years.

Cover Photo Credit: Kylie Supski