David Prater


small town fsu

rocking my timberland roof
over a 24/7 walgreens whiff of
molson canadian pints in seneca
go sabres! red eye on wheels
behind exchange st hemingways!
amtrak peace bridges track a
u.s . postal service bison along
main street retail / allentown
panhandlers beware of assholes
blue birds in talking leaves hear
cats 'n writtens in auditoriums
niagara river a broken bagel the
morning after bloody hollys bank
snow surplus, the red rocktober
vanilla coke interventions &
schenectady's spicy wings yo
syracuse! rochester! go attica!
fuckin shit up (small town fsu


exhale on main street

america hands me his business card -
i clutch it gamely
& exhale there, on main street
dreaming of toronto ...

everclear city of my childhood's
TV programmers ...

just 2 hours & a maple leaf away.

i stick to molson,
almost shouting "bienvenue!"
at a niagara falls border guard

a red stamp all i retrieved
from an afternoon of breathing
on that pitiless peace bridge


alles klaar?

bound but forgetful, here yet not
finalised, arriving after belonging
nowhere in particular - alles klaar?

resentful during autumn, irritable as
a vowel, swimming through sewage,
always turning left - alles klaar?

one hand on stomach, one hand
on head, fond of penguins on toast,
rare as nirvana - alles klaar?

sick of bacon, rehashing hash,
drunk as deference, switching
channels, harbours - alles klaar?

ja, alles klaar.


David Prater was born in Dubbo, Australia in 1972. Since 2000 he has been the Managing Editor of Cordite Poetry Review, an online poetry journal funded by the Australia Council for the Arts. In 2006 he briefly joined Going Down Swinging, a bi-annual literary magazine, as Associate Editor. In 2004 he completed a Master of Arts at the University of Melbourne, his thesis being an examination of that curious confection, Marzipan. In 2005 he was an Asialink resident in Seoul, Republic of Korea, where he pursued his obsession with PC Bangs. He is currently enrolled as a PhD student at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.

 
 
 
previous page     contents     next page