Wednesday

Poems from Stories (2004-2019)



  1. from Monkey Miss Her Now (2004)
      Robinsonade:
    1. The Dream (7/8-8/10/96)
    2. Tango Summer:
    3. Bookmarks (10-24/11/98)
    4. The Great New Zealand Vortex:
    5. Inconsequential (12/7/81)
    6. The Great New Zealand Vortex (26/2-10/5/97)
    7. Tahiti in 1978:
    8. Flying the moon (11-17/9/2000)
    9. Brought up on Homeric platitudes (30/8-14/9/2000)
    10. I is someone else (4-17/9/2000)
    11. Femme d’aujourd’hui (4-17/9/2000)
    12. A Strange Day at the Language School:
    13. Life Support (30/12/97-14/1/99)

  2. from Kingdom of Alt (2010)
      Haiku Diary:
    1. Haiku 1-12 (4-18/3/04)
    2. Tanka 1-2 (18/3/04)
    3. Time to Kill (29/3/04)
    4. Tanka 3-4 (1/4/04)
    5. Haiku 13 (18/4/01)
    6. The Purloined Letter:
    7. Spleen (8/2/96)
    8. Before the Disaster:
      1. Just because you’re rich doesn’t make you gay (30/11/07-6/2/08)
      2. 30 at the roadworks = 50 (30/11/07-6/2/08)
      3. Les montagnes sont des bâtiments (30/10/06-3/12/07)
      4. Give Blood (26/1-7/2/08)
      5. 3 Sisters (26/1-7/2/08)
    9. Coursebook found in a Warzone:
    10. U.P.: up (2/7-21/10/08)
    11. Dream Poem 1: Stalin’s Raven (4/10/89-18/12/06)
    12. Dream Poem 2: Party in the SCR (20/10/89-5/2/09)
    13. Dream Poem 3: Book-Sale (24/10/89-5/2/09)
    14. Dream Poem 4: A Glastonbury Romance (25/10/89-5/2/09)
    15. Dream Poem 5: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (27/1/90-5/2/09)
    16. Dream Poem 6: Claire’s Dream (21/5/90-5/2/09)
    17. Dream Poem 7: Malcolm O (22/5/90-5/2/09)
    18. Dream Poem 8: Ugolino (24/7/91-5/2/09)
    19. Dream Poem 9: The War (18/1/94-18/12/06)
    20. Dream Poem 10: Finland (31/5/94-5/2/09)
    21. Dream Poem 11: Lion’s Head (19/6/95-18/12/06)

  3. from Ghost Stories (2019)
      Leaves from a Diary of the End of the World:
    1. 3 Mayan Poems:
      1. Lacandon-Maya Poem (6/3-23/3/13)
      2. Tzotzil-Maya Prayer (6/3-23/3/13)
      3. Yucatán-Maya Hunting Song (6/3-23/3/13)
    2. The Cross-Correspondences:
    3. Chinese girl students (19/6/18-26/1/19)
    4. The waiter who’s brought (26/11/18-26/1/19)





Jack Ross: Monkey Miss Her Now (2004)


Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X. Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004. 138 pp.







I dreamt a dream
– What can it mean? –
That Marianne came back to me
On some jewelled beach in Tahiti.

I doubt this presages a change
(Though who can say? for love is strange)
But while the message is obscure
My joy was limitless and pure.

I woke inside the darkling bach
But somehow it was not so black.
I felt she really had loved me
Till parted by fatality.


(7/8-8/10/96)

Publications:
  • "Robinsonade". Pander 2 (1997): 14-15.
  • Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004): 11-18.
  • "Robinsonade." Jack Ross: Stories (18/8/96)










(10-24/11/98)

Publications:
  • "Tango Summer". evasion 2 (2000): 20-27.
  • Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004): 31-43.
  • "Tango Summer." Jack Ross: Stories (4/11/98)







I am a pipe the wind blows through,
    This figure cannot dim
        Inconsequential
Eremites of sorrow, or that twice-
        Delivered tale
Of sufferings deluded from a fool. …


(11-17/9/2000)

Publications:
  • "The Great New Zealand Vortex". evasion 2 (4) & (5) (2003).
  • Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004): 67-82.
  • "The Great New Zealand Vortex." Jack Ross: Stories (26/2/97)
















(30/8-14/9/2000)

Publications:
  • "The Great New Zealand Vortex". evasion 2 (4) & (5) (2003).
  • Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004): 67-82.
  • "The Great New Zealand Vortex." Jack Ross: Stories (26/2/97)







Flying the moon
    like a kite
sight-lines
    thumbed taut

white boat
    on a blue sea
cloud looming
    haze to darkness

remember me


(4-17/9/2000)

Publications:
  • "Tahiti in 1978". brief 23 (2002): 36-50.
  • Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004): 52-66.
  • "Tahiti in 1978." Jack Ross: Stories (22/9/2000)







Brought up on Homeric platitudes
we find no music in the wind
at day-break
              dragons on silk
dressing-gowns confound
us


A time of sorrows
                   wasn’t that
before? I used to know
all that I didn’t know
you rowed
            Oh yes
in armour
            on the wine-dark sea


(4-17/9/2000)

Publications:
  • "Tahiti in 1978". brief 23 (2002): 36-50.
  • Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004): 52-66.
  • "Tahiti in 1978." Jack Ross: Stories (22/9/2000)







Able at times to cry
    – W. H. Auden


I is someone else
    surf-roar
Kai-iwi lakes

Someone else
    up there? He drove
to check up anyway

like a train
    one dragon eye
roar on pattens

pitter-patter
    on the nylon
roof I told you

grass is good
    to eat
you wouldn’t

listen
    grass is good
to

Graze on needles then


(12/7/81)

Publications:
  • "Tahiti in 1978". brief 23 (2002): 36-50.
  • Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004): 52-66.
  • "Tahiti in 1978." Jack Ross: Stories (22/9/2000)

Notes:
  • The quotation from W. H. Auden comes from the poem "As He Is", available in Collected Shorter Poems: 1927-1957. London: Faber, 1966): 117.







Jeanne Mas                     Sounds like
    … et les photos     my kind of girl
    reviennent          a funky beast
sans cesse …                  chickens gyrate

              to the beat


(26/2-10/5/97)

Publications:
  • "Tahiti in 1978". brief 23 (2002): 36-50.
  • Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004): 52-66.
  • "Tahiti in 1978." Jack Ross: Stories (22/9/2000)

Notes:







No doubt you’ve heard she’s combed – little In-Jae – the nurse told May and me A rupture in the wall of the blood-vessel: brain-stem injury She came here from Korea to learn English; she returns burned dry as dust Dead when we saw her (breathing still) … Perhaps the word was coned


(30/12/97-14/1/99)

Publications:
  • "A Strange Day at the Language School". Landfall 203 (2002): 119-25.
  • Monkey Miss Her Now & Everything a Teenage Girl Should Know. ISBN 0-476-00182-X (Auckland: Danger Publishing, 2004): 83-93.
  • "A Strange Day at the Language School." Jack Ross: Stories (7/6/2001)






Jack Ross: Monkey Miss Her Now (2004)






Jack Ross: Kingdom of Alt (2010)


Kingdom of Alt. Short Stories & a Novella by Jack Ross. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8. Auckland: Titus Books, 2010. 244 pp.







Blue / red / blue chairs
Elmo on the OHP
looking both ways


Nancy turns her head
towards the stage-lights
Grant walks up & down


The cleaners leave
carrying vacuums
feet scuff on the ground


Moon through the trees
can that be water?
streetlight filament hovers like a moth


Better than a Boy
T-shirt
hung over the letter-box


Batteries
& bottle-tops
beside a missing bus-stop

 

‘If you need a
blood-test …’
– on a car


Wild Appetite
pulls out
impatiently


When the bus doesn’t come
tow-trucks pull out
in front of you


street-light
filaments
hover above


A plastic bag
tied to a branch
No vacancy


Waiting for the bus
again –
people eye the stooge


(4-18/3/04)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 21-47.
  • "Haiku Diary." Jack Ross: Stories (3/4/2004)







the gap between
28 &
35
– You might as well
be 55


 ‘Just letting you know
I’m more important
than anything you can buy …’
Girl behind me
on a cell-phone


(18/3/04)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 21-47.
  • "Haiku Diary." Jack Ross: Stories (3/4/2004)







Check out earplugs
at the Mega-centre
Take a walk
along the beach
Buy something

Fizzy drink?
Mars bar?
25 stubbies?
Filling gaps
in my address book

Go home
Turn on the TV
Play patience
(bus stops short
defend your bag)

I’d like to tell you
how I ended up
pricing those earplugs
(bought a baseball bat
instead)


(29/3/04)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 21-47.
  • "Haiku Diary." Jack Ross: Stories (3/4/2004)







a is red heart
b is two women
(both talking on
their mobile phones)
c is six Chinese


Sleeping rough
in Albert Park
under the lamposts
– orange light –
dancing down stairs


(1/4/04)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 21-47.
  • "Haiku Diary." Jack Ross: Stories (3/4/2004)







soft darkness pressing in on us
arc of electric light
glow-worms under banks of earth


(18/4/01)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 21-47.
  • "Haiku Diary." Jack Ross: Stories (3/4/2004)







I see myself as the King of a rainy land
young but decrepit, rich but not a man
despising all his tutors, frankly bored
with his old hunting-dogs, an idle Lord
whom nothing can amuse: hawks hunting blood
the sight of his people dying in the mud
the songs & antics of his licensed clown
are powerless to interrupt his frown
his lily bed has turned into a tomb
those ladies who adorn a Prince’s room
& who’d feel proud to spread their legs for him
no longer can dress scantily enough
to interest this skeleton in love
the alchemist who turns lead into gold
cannot melt down his Master in his mould
& in those baths where the Romans cut their veins
sole remedy for age’s acid pains
he can’t reboot the heart of this cadaver
whose blood has thinned to Lethe’s slime-green water

– Charles Baudelaire, “Spleen” (1851)


(8/2/96)

Publications:
  • "The Purloined Letter." brief #35 – A Brief World Order (2007): 14-33.
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 63-79.
  • "The Purloined Letter." Jack Ross: Stories (5/10/2005)

Notes:





from Before the Disaster





I


Just because you’re rich doesn’t make you gay
    – bus conversation

I came out It was 11.11 by the kitchen clock
I discovered about 4 pm that he was weakening I therefore reminded him of the agreement made before leaving camp in case either of us should show signs of exhaustion his comrade should tell him in order that necessary steps might be taken to prevent disaster and I again urged upon him the necessity of returning to the sleeping bag for rest and shelter
Twice I’ve had this premonition this time the hair stood up on the back of my neck
on striking the first care is to catch the line behind one leg so as to act as a strong check and for farther security a hitch is also taken round the ring finger which sometimes can be terribly lacerated and even torn off by the struggles of a large victim the females which have their young with them are far more to be dreaded than the males every one is distinguished by a particular name and the angry repetition of it has an effect as instantaneous as an application of the whip which instrument is of an immense length
Yesterday while driving to Pt Chev today in the same place coming back
I gave him some brandy and spirits of ammonia which seemed to revive him I now lighted the lamp and prepared some warm food endeavoring to start him in order to keep him from freezing but it was all in vain He was too weak to stand up and his mind seemed to be taken up with recollections of his relatives and friends at home of whom he spoke
IT’S NOT TOO LATE DRIVE SOBER
opposite each other with the flat sides parallel a neatly formed case contains the bow and a few arrows a little bag attached to the side contains a stone for sharpening and some spare arrow-heads carefully wrapped up in a piece of skin the bow is held in a horizontal position and though capable of great force is rarely used at a greater distance than from twelve to twenty yards we saw no regular chase and as we could only judge from report and from the expressive pantomimic description of the hunters I cannot pretend to furnish an account
Black plastic bag hanging from a traffic light two turns of twine around it
I felt more like remaining there and perishing by the side of my companion than to make another effort but the sense of the duty which I owed to bear back the sad tidings of the disaster sustained me in this trial I stopped and kissed the remains of my dead companion and left them there for the wild winds to sweep over The death of my companion made a deeper impression on my mind than any experience my whole life
thinking that he might have something on his person I searched his clothing


(30/11/07-6/2/08)

Publications:
  • "Before the Disaster". Percutio 2 (2008): 74-80.
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 105-26.
  • "Before the Disaster." Jack Ross: Stories (30/11/2007)

Notes:
  • Sergeant Frederick's report on the death of 'the bravest and noblest on the [Greely] expedition' [1881-1884] is quoted here from David L. Brainard, The Outpost of the Lost: An Arctic Adventure. 1929. Foreword by Geoffrey E. Clark (New York: Skyhorse, 2018).
  • The account of seal-hunting [in bold] is quoted from George Francis Lyon, Private Journal During the Recent Voyage of Discovery Under Captain Parry (London: John Murray, 1824), pp. 329 et seq.







30 at the roadworks = 50
    – Bumper Sticker


News Feed:
Tuesday January 8, 08:09 AM: Fire sparks emergency response There is a massive turnout of emergency services this morning to a big fire in an office block in the coastal suburbs of the City. It is possible that people are trapped inside the building. A huge plume of smoke is visible from the CBD. Shore Road is blocked from Central Ave to Union Street. Eleven fire engines, along with police and ambulance crews, are there.
Pathologist's Report on the victims: • Smoke-inhalation • Lacerations, both deep and superficial • (injuries consistent with breaking the glass of a window with one’s hands) • Massive internal haemorrhaging • (injuries consistent with a fall of several stories onto hard concrete below) • Scorching (severe) • Extensive third and fourth degree burns


(30/11/07-6/2/08)

Publications:
  • "Before the Disaster". Percutio 2 (2008): 74-80.
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 105-26.
  • "Before the Disaster." Jack Ross: Stories (30/11/2007)







Les montagnes sont des bâtiments
sur les collines de Wellington
fenêtres sur l’océan
    – chanson française
A seagull wings ahead of ink-black clouds in a still sunlit sky 0800-SCRUB-4-U on the side of a white car having difficulties turning out • tipped-up dark glasses in the HIACE van • Boy walking up the hill with three pieces of fruit each in a plastic bag Another boy walks downhill cellphone to his ear • a fragment of chicken clings to plastic clingfilm • Walking faster to avoid saying hello to the elderly neighbour wheeling her groceries up the long steep slope • fish jumps from wine to spirits the young girl in the dairy seems to call you back • / KNOCKED U P / PIRAT ES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3 In the Post Office decorations for Dhiwali – everywhere • WORKS END THANK YOU • a natural instinct for alliteration in the child behind Tina’s getting tired observes her Mummy hopefully


(30/10/06-3/12/07)

Publications:
  • "Before the Disaster". Percutio 2 (2008): 74-80.
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 105-26.
  • "Before the Disaster." Jack Ross: Stories (30/11/2007)







Give blood
go skateboarding
    – Boy’s T-shirt


I’m going to wear jandals
today
    taking a walk
on the wild side

when you just know
there’s nothing
    they can
do to you

a tentative attempt
becomes the hero’s
    salmon leap
our cat Zero

’s attack
on a blank 
    puppet
made of calico

I fulminate
to captive audiences
    (taking the piss
no doubt

in furtive whispers)
not
    the leap of faith
we bargained on

the fear that dogs our days


(26/1-7/2/08)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 105-26.
  • "Before the Disaster." Jack Ross: Stories (30/11/2007)
  • "The Zero Suite." Papyri (2/5/23)





V


3 sisters
^^ ^^ ^^
    – T-shirt logo


Have you slimed yet?
the Aussie Sheila
    asks
the uptight city Brit

lowering the tone
I guess he’d call it
    she
keeping it real

a certain inconsistency
of purpose
    characters
attracted & repelled

by the same things
from frame to frame
    the more
jaded they are

the less alluring
a fashion-conscious
    6-year-old
chased crabwise

by the surf


(26/1-7/2/08)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 105-26.
  • "Before the Disaster." Jack Ross: Stories (30/11/2007)







I thought of a story about an Academic
one who hadn’t noticed he was dead
because they never opened up
the windows in his room

He sat there at his desk
book-ended by his filing cabinets
fading patterns on the wall
where his photographs had been

From time to time he’d look up from the pages
of last century’s quarterlies
see that day had shifted into dusk
& the streetlights had come on

The air was stale in there
he didn’t care
no need to tweak & update
the same old lectures now

•	

 “U.P.: Up” – Ulysses
I asked you to define it for me once
you couldn’t
not to my satisfaction anyway

I wonder if you’ll find it easier
alone there in the dark
pebbles in your pockets
chattering

to anyone who’ll listen?
Ave atque Vale then
to your Van Dyke beard
defiant little puku

amused bravado
whatever you deserved it wasn’t this
embarrassed silence these
absurd periphrases this

hermetically-sealed chamber
whose contents must
at the stroke of dawn
turn into dust


(2/7-21/10/08)

Publications:
  • Tuesday Poem.” Molloy * Notebook. Ed. Harvey Molloy (19/7/10).
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







I dreamt of a kind of fool, a court jester
beaten with sticks, me watching, heavy
blows on shoulders, back & legs.
                                Meanwhile
a parallel unfolded, a black raven
pecking at other birds in a great mass
of feathers, sawdust: like a sand-pit.
The court, somehow, was Stalin's – like a Tsar.
A group of doctors stood around a bed,
– white masks, white faces – tending to his wounds.
Was I one?  Maybe not.
                        Then the pip
of the alarm.  Not a nightmare, though the blows
& pecking stabbed at me as well: onlooker
on the fringes of the scene.


(4/10/89-18/12/06)

Publications:
  • Dream Poems.” The Imaginary Museum (18/12/2006).
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







Kept up till late by shouting, banging,
name called through the floor – I dreamed
(after much brooding) of a course
of studies, me explaining it – the essays,
marks, requirements – in the upstairs party room,
St. Leonard's.  Claire was there, & Russell.
As I spoke the bell went off
& woke me – but, before, there
was such an atmosphere of "learned life,"
the 50s, greyness, purpose &
(I find I'm writing) snow.


(20/10/89-5/2/09)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







The basement of a Department store – levels,
escalators, floors.  Long lines of tables
covered with old books – myself too late
to pick them up, waylaid, encountered,
glimpses from above.  A chase.
Directions to Japanese
how best to reach the ground (arms wide:
this floor & that floor), aided by the
guard.  Somewhere my friends
with bundles, racking up a score.


(24/10/89-5/2/09)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







A kind of psychomachia – our group
in an old house with a well outside, stone steps,
sorting our weapons: little twists of glass
or plastic  for enemies, round silver coins for us.
The novel's world – outside, green lawns,
the sea, a group of tramps collecting coins
(one tried to hand his on – promptly rebuked
by a door that opened to show a bearded man
– our Leader?)  Somewhere were dragons, foes,
collecting too.
                Then, back inside (elsewhere?)
a story started.  I told them (to illustrate some point)
about Haile Selassie's Abyssinian fleet
of white Rolls Royces – till the alarm-clock rang.


(25/10/89-5/2/09)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







I woke up in a futuristic city –
like a T.V. set, flimsy steel & spools
of wire – was told that I had won
some prize (a bowl of soup, perhaps)
got up & wandered – soon found a lounge
where bozos were admiring their TV
(then showing credits), shouting for ‘Who wants to be
a Millionaire?'  The camera showed	
(was I the camera?) a studio set with girl
in jeans & headphones, professional clip-board
behind the tangle – lounge furniture in front.
Suited, with briefcase, the MC
entered, made a double-take, turned round & left,
then came back in.  The girl joined him on stage.
The questions started – poems – MC: 'Gibbons?'
She answered; 'with their sounding harpstrings – Blake.'
The MC asked her for a marshy region
plagued with Tsetse flies –'Haiti?' –
No – the girl answered 'the something game reserve
in Kenya.' Then a question went awry
– I don't know what – forcing the audience’s
meters up. Just one solution.  Bang!
(Their water turned to fire – the host explained –
leaving them heaps of ash.)  The game continued,
the girl & MC gone (I loved her); 
time for me to collect
                            my prize?


(27/1/90-5/2/09)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







‘It must have been a Friday – in a tram,
    an old one, passing by the Halls,
    the rough holes in its walls,
the tram-conductor told me, caused by falling stones.

Then, when we arrived, & I got down
    two parcels wrapped in string
    were handed to me – I thought nothing
of it – unwrapped, one held the head

of the conductor with, carved on his bald crown,
    the message: “Your turn now'”– inside the other
    a mangy monkey, stuffed; I asked my mother
& father's help – “Here, you're on your own”.’

The haunted towers, old tram, conductor's head,
    malign, stuffed monkey – told to me in bed.
    ‘I didn’t worry. It was as if they were all dead
& it was happening to an alter ego ...’


(21/5/90-5/2/09)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







In a bookshop – not unlike James Thin's –
a sale in progress, picked up many:
Thackeray's works bound into one, a book
called Malcolm O by Carlos Fuentes, shelves
for South America (green Penguin classic:
Return from Argentina).  Then – it seemed the future –
taken in the street & packed on board a
bus, with several others.  Driver, guard,
both women – we knew they meant to kill us.
The bus was built like Sweeney Todd's – a rack
& mincer down below – after each stop the 'catch'
disposed of.  Talked to the girls. They liked me,
said they'd save me, but – I'd have to hide.
Took me to suburban home (motel?)
My name now Malcolm O (like Jackie X?).
inside Securitate took me to a room
with globe & leather chairs – & questioned me,
I answered for my life – a casual drawl.
Somehow unworried, knew they'd let me go
because Meg Tilly, Amy Madigan
(girls looked quite like them, slight,
dressed in combat pants) were covering
                                    for me.


(22/5/90-5/2/09)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







I was going down Victoria St – in some foreign city –
& ducked in to a film called Ugolino
(maybe Brussels?).  A jail-bird – long, hard face,
lank hair, good body – had just been released.
His progress, though, was slow.
A jumble of ruined chances, chatted-up girls,
quick knife-fights, till he turned & ran.
It ended on a sour note with poor Ugolino,
a face at a small window, driven off
to jail.
        But then the story continued.
Back in prison, alone in a holding cell,
the prison trusty – a small boy – was there.
Somehow he squeezed inside the cell (naked,
black with oil) to comfort Ugolino for his loss:
outside.  Next thing, the two were walking
through a car-park – the prison car-park – Ugo
with a trolley (supermarket?), the boy right by his side.
He joined a queue, the boy was walking off
– accosted by the guards, who took him back –
dissolve on Ugo, waiting in the queue.
                                      Next
back in town, Ugo persuaded his girlfriend
to hide him in her flat after a quarrel.
She loved him; not he her.  Eventually they parted,
but Ugo kept on coming back,  after all.
    Scenery shift: In a car, a rocky valley
(Highlands?  West Coast?), Claire remarked
She’d love to see America – Philadelphia – & we
(me & the good ol’ boys) decided to go there
with her.  We got ourselves a job in Repertoire
– Gilbert & Sullivan – in the chorus (Russell
As a stage-hand), ended up jubilant.

    Ugo was part-Canadian (from Montreal?);
The rest a transposition to low-key.


(24/7/91-5/2/09)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







I ran into an old friend on the street
(the scene: some future, broken-down New York)
she & her boyfriend were wearing overalls
& emptying the trash into a long
& complicated articulated machine.
They greeted me: “Whatcha doing here?”
I answered: “Hustling, since out of labour camp.”
    (I'd turned the corner from another world,
a hotel run by gangsters – on the desk
a cute, dark girl – Helena? – I'd addressed
in Chinitalian – their password:
Chinese-Italian – no nod from upstairs …
“But Boss, the dormitory sleeps sixteen!”)
    Kate & her boyfriend sympathised with me – 
the lucky ones, they'd been here doing this
all through the war – & now were moving house
to look after an apartment for a friend.
    We got to talking – the friend had not been keen
on all their safety clothing – Kate confided.
“He told us that your body gets slip-streamed
from years of this exposure, so no problem.”
I told her (I think truly) this was false
“You must keep your protection – if he minds
construct a hallway closet with your things
ready for each morning – or else you'll die."
Kate – slim, smooth dark-blonde hair – had changed,
her hair was spikey, strung-out, she looked tired –
the opening, I felt, for something else.


(18/1/94-18/12/06)

Publications:
  • Dream Poems.” The Imaginary Museum (18/12/2006).
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







I was in Finland, sitting in a pew,
hearing a church choir singing (out of tune).
A lovely blonde, with highlights in her hair,
(my future bride), her father, & her brother
were sitting by me.  I, a picaro,
persuaded that their land needed new blood
– new victims rather – idly protested
my ignorance of their language. 
                                An interlude,
& there I was again – inside a hall,
an amphitheatre rather, again a choir
(a larger one this time) singing out of tune
though guided by a master.  A bearded man,
short, stocky – Father-in-law to be –
stood up to make a speech, & was clubbed down.
The hall was pandemonium – fear of foreigners?
The girl was screaming, I was caught & tied.
The Finns sent me in exile, chains & fetters
around my wrists.
                  Her brother, fettered too,
was with me in a little hut.
He learnt to strangle wolves & rabbits
with his chains, & nursed me back to health.
The girl was in disgrace; I saw her in the distance;
left well enough alone – until the bell.


(31/5/94-5/2/09)

Publications:
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)







Not an erotic dream – a dream of flight
& slaughter.  The chase has bloody roots.
Fleeing from a cabin full of death
(boyfriend among the dead), our girl
– shorts, t-shirt – waves down a white car.
The driver is an easy-going bozo, believes her,
pedal to the metal, u-turn with a roar.
[Next scene:] 
    They are discovered, having driven
miles & miles, inside a cheap motel.
Startled, late at night, they drive off the back porch
down onto clay, a grassless slope, with new-laid roads
ending in the concrete slipway for a dam. 
            The choice is simple,
a boy below looks up – they kill him,
then offer up his burnt corpse.  Above, inside the room,
three figures wait – a lion’s head among them.
Is the sacrifice accepted?  Who can tell?
They find the car, roar off on a dead end,
bump over grass ... till woken by a squeal,
a set of squeals – or barks? – or mechanistic
screeches. 
           Nightmare-like, dissolves.


(19/6/95-18/12/06)

Publications:
  • Dream Poems.” The Imaginary Museum (18/12/2006).
  • Kingdom of Alt. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8 (Auckland: Titus Books, 2010): 127-239.
  • "Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit." Jack Ross: Stories (11/6/2008)






Jack Ross: Kingdom of Alt (2010)






Jack Ross: Ghost Stories (2019)


Ghost Stories. 978-0-9951165-5-9. 99% Press. Auckland: Lasavia Publishing, 2019. 140 pp.





3 Mayan Poems:







Every time I lift my foot
every time I lift my hand
    I shift my tail

I hear your voice from far away

I’m searching for a fallen tree
    tired now
I'll fall asleep on the fallen tree

My skin

My ears
        my hands
                my feet
are scratched


(6/3-23/3/13)

Publications:
  • "3 Mayan Poems". brief 49 (2013): 60-65.
  • "Leaves from a Diary of the End of the World." brief 53 (2015): 80-97.
  • Ghost Stories. 978-0-9951165-5-9. 99% Press (Auckland: Lasavia Publishing, 2019): 35-52.
  • "Leaves from a Diary of the End of the World." Jack Ross: Stories (6/2/2013)

Notes:
  • Text from M. Demetrio Sodi, La literatura de los Mayas. 1964. El Legado de la América Indígena (México: Editorial Joaquín Mortiz, S. A., 1974): 81.







Green fire
aërial fog
        be epilepsy
yellow fire
        be epilepsy
north wind
        be epilepsy
        narcolepsy
white mist
        be epilepsy

I repel it
        repel it nine times
I expel it
        expel it nine times
pacify it
        pacify it nine times
Lord
    in an hour
    half an hour
        fly away
into the fog
        fly away
as a butterfly

Slow your big pulse
slow your small pulse
both of them
    within the hour
    half an hour
So be it
Lord
send it away
        over thirteen mountains
        over thirteen hills
stop at thirteen rows of rocks
stop at thirteen rows of trees


(6/3-23/3/13)

Publications:
  • "3 Mayan Poems". brief 49 (2013): 60-65.
  • "Leaves from a Diary of the End of the World." brief 53 (2015): 80-97.
  • Ghost Stories. 978-0-9951165-5-9. 99% Press (Auckland: Lasavia Publishing, 2019): 35-52.
  • "Leaves from a Diary of the End of the World." Jack Ross: Stories (6/2/2013)

Notes:
  • Text from M. Demetrio Sodi, La literatura de los Mayas. 1964. El Legado de la América Indígena (México: Editorial Joaquín Mortiz, S. A., 1974): 81, 89 & 34-35.







Hunter from the mountains
hunt
    at the edge of the grove
once
     twice
          dance
three times

Lift your face
look carefully
    make no mistake
about your prize

Have you sharpened your arrows?
Have you strung your bow?
Have you stroked your shaft
    with catzim resin?
Have you greased your arms
        your feet    your knees
        your calves  your ribs
        your waist   your chest
    with buck-deer fat?

Lap three times
the coloured stone
where the spotless virgin
      youth
is tied

First    run
        second
take your bow
nock your arrow
against his chest

shoot him
– not so hard as that! –
    let him suffer
as God wills
 
Lap again
the blue-green stone
shoot him again
but don’t stop dancing
that's how we measure
    warriors
men pleasing
in the eyes of God

The sun breaks through
the eastern trees
the archer starts to sing
    his song
learning to be
a warrior
learning to run and dance
    and kill


(6/3-23/3/13)

Publications:
  • "3 Mayan Poems". brief 49 (2013): 60-65.
  • "Leaves from a Diary of the End of the World." brief 53 (2015): 80-97.
  • Ghost Stories. 978-0-9951165-5-9. 99% Press (Auckland: Lasavia Publishing, 2019): 35-52.
  • "Leaves from a Diary of the End of the World." Jack Ross: Stories (6/2/2013)

Notes:
  • Text from M. Demetrio Sodi, La literatura de los Mayas. 1964. El Legado de la América Indígena (México: Editorial Joaquín Mortiz, S. A., 1974): 81, 89 & 34-35.







Chinese girl students
    taking selfies 
        without cameras
    through the perspex
bus-stop

Watching through the 
    the windscreen
        I debate
    is this the end 
prepared for me?

I feel a poem
    coming on
        I wish it were
    much better
more nuanced

more profound


(19/6/18-26/1/19)

Publications:
  • Ghost Stories. 978-0-9951165-5-9. 99% Press (Auckland: Lasavia Publishing, 2019): 94-118.
  • "The Cross-Correspondences." Jack Ross: Stories (4/6/2018)







The waiter who’s brought
    my room-service tray
        two or three times
    catches my eye
at breakfast

wanting to be recognised?
    I’m not quick enough
        so he turns back
    disappointed
the others just scowl


(26/11/18-26/1/19)

Publications:
  • Ghost Stories. 978-0-9951165-5-9. 99% Press (Auckland: Lasavia Publishing, 2019): 94-118.
  • "The Cross-Correspondences." Jack Ross: Stories (4/6/2018)






Jack Ross: Ghost Stories (2019)







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