I met death by a vending machine
Rifling pockets for a quarter
Fresh from an ashen hospital wing
Meeting the sons and the daughters
Dishevelled and weary, death turned to me
And asked could I spare any change
And I froze with a fear and wondered how far
I could reach without being in range
Oh, Death be not strange
I met death by a vending machine
With a fine silver blade it was trying
To cut every coin from that echoing belly
And lift all the food without buying
Then death turned to me with a glint in its smile
And a gleam in its shiny gold chain
And it said if you help me, I'll spare you from crying
Over your own children's graves
Me and old Death by a vending machine
The pair of us locked eye to eye
Oh, Death, the tie that binds
I met death by a vending machine
And a sign that said Out of Order
And death, body doubled, with boots caked in dust
Asked could I spare any water
And I froze, half confused, half afraid, half delighted
Could it be that death was dying?
All it took from me now was to keep for myself
All the water I carried inside
My father was a communist
I always knew when he'd lost his job
Because he'd pick me up after school
Still in his work boots and overcoat
Clamped against the cold
And dink me home on his bicycle
The Johnson twins laughing and
Making faces as they passed us in the car
Mrs Johnson yelling from the front
Don’t stare, don’t stare!
And I would play boy in the crow’s nest
Perched on the handle bars
Face in the biting wind, calling
Pot-hole ahead! Hard to port!
Steer left!
And I'd stay up late
And while Gran wasn’t looking
He’d give me a dram of wine in a jam jar
And I’d roll off to sleep
With a vision
Of my father, the communist,
Hunched over paper in the lamplight
Wreathed in a trail of slow grey smoke
Like following
The sinking of a stone
My father was a communist
I always knew when there was trouble at the docks
By the light from the bathroom
Sharp and thin beneath the door
And the hall would fill with shadow talk
And the sound of running water
And I would lay still against the loud loud linen
And play the spy
Their words the warp and weft of gauze
And all I ever heard was Why? Why?
And Don’t you think about the boy?
And brushing my teeth for school in the morning
I’d spit my Colgate at the spatters
Of blood remained where the sink plug clung
To its tiny chain
My father was a communist
I always knew, when Gran promised the Melbourne Zoo
But told me I should clean my shoes
That night I would see him
Propped up with pillows and pricked with tubes
Eyes clamped against the oily
Disinfectant glow
And perched on the steel back of a chair
I would play the sparrow
Pondering the leg spring or wing span needed
To reach his bed in a single bound
And be the boy who wondered
If to land would hurt him
Or if I would catch his slow disease
Just for being near him
And Gran would laugh
Buckling me in to the seat of the car
No, who told you that?
You can’t catch Communism
You have found me at the end of days
Where the body craves not lust but empty space
You have found me in a nightly daze
Where the body has learned to trust the old aches and pains
And I do not want to be saved
So take that old look off your face
The view from in here would take
Your breath away, so
You have found me at the end of days
Where gods jostle, with promise in hand for chance at first place
And you have found me one side of too late
Where the body stumbles like lips on a forgotten phrase
And I do not want to be saved
So take that old look off your face
The view from in here would take
Your breath away, so
You have found me where I was misplaced
Where the body craves not lust but touch all the same
But I do not want to be saved
So take that old look off your face
The view from in here would take
Your breath away, so how could I ask you to stay?
Shane was the best of our class
in the lunch and recess wars
ghost gum sticks as guns
and pine cone grenades
run between trees
and aim
“got you, Shane!”
from cricket nets
and monkey bars
Shane would hurl himself
a dead weight to the dirt
sometimes an agonized scream
as a flourish
sometimes smuggle cochineal bottles
to cake his face in blood
one time pissed his pants
in our makeshift trench
between the footy field and France
“it’s what they would have done”
he said
Shane was the best
killed daily and resurrected
ten times, more or less
never dodged a bullet
Those time travel shows have got it all wrong
They all seem to think you disappear
You just walk into a phone box with a mad Englishman
That's much bigger in there than out here
Or meet with a mad American man
And his nuclear powered car
And vanish quite neatly in a trail of flames
At 88 miles per hour
Time, wo, wo, time
Time is so confusing, whatever you are using
It don’t work that way
I just woke up one morning and there by my side
Was the first of the copies of me
He had slept with my wife and I could tell from her smile
He must have been better than me
And this dark feeling rose, to punch him in the nose
But I could not decide which fist
And it's as well I refrained for I felt it on my face
When she turned and greeted him with a kiss
Time, wo, wo, time
Time will turn to meet ya
With old familiar features
And so, then I thought, I may as well go to work
Perhaps now I'll get doubly paid
Then I saw on the bus there was three more of us
How many of me had been made?
One still had his hair and a beard down to here
Another with a burger and fries in his lap
And the last had a look that said leave me the hell alone
So I was careful to choose where I sat
Time, wo, wo, time
Time is a refuter
A life sentence commuter
When I punched the old clock, Susie looked kinda shocked
She said I thought that you were on leave
I said who told you that, she said the guy who's been sat
In your spot for the last twenty weeks
I said, well this is news, who is this dude?
She said I dunno, you all look the same
So I checked out my station and with some consternation
I saw it was happening again
Time, wo, wo , Time
Time takes a beginner
And spreads him mighty thinner
Only this guy was smarter and neater and seemed
To be in with the boss like a treat
And I took a dislike to his suit and his watch
And those pointy little shoes on his feet
And I began to believe, since the numbers of me
Were somehow growing to a plague
That surely just one would never be missed
But that was my biggest mistake
As I opened a window to let one of us out
The strangest thing did occur
An army of me appeared at the scene
Singing come down the pub with us sir!
Time, wo, wo, time
Time is like a soldier
Nobody told the war is over
They played the piano and shouted me drinks
And spun me old yarns to the dawn
And then when it came to roll home again
We all gathered round to draw straws
Yes, those sci-fi shows have got it all wrong
Time don't let you disappear
You just wake up one morning and think to yourself
Gee, it's good to be back here
Time, wo, wo, time
Time’s a complicator
A consummate frustrator
Oh, time
Time’s so good at waitin’
Time will see you later
Wo, wo, wo , time.
A Gathering of Cats in a Lane
How We Go
B Side of the Suns
Two Suns Once
Static of Crows
The Lodger
Favourite Dinosaur
Silence in the Library
Iso Haircut
The Orbit of Your Breathing
I Don't Remember the Future
Specks on a Map
Oddities
The Gravestone Carvers
Imaginary Lines
Falling Asleep with the Moon Still On
Lovers' River
The Sea Will Take it From Here
Land
What Kind of Yes?
Long Tall Shadow
Once Was Water
The Sky that Came Before
Party Songs
You Are Here