John Tranter


Mr Hyde

A, azure, B, brown, C, clatter,
alphabet of failed endeavours,
what bankers use to attempt to flatter
the timid investor. Rainbows float in the sky
above the gas lights. Dr Jekyll severs
the last thread that ties him to humanity
and plunges into his own id – a cry
that is almost a scream, nearly a groan,
as he treads the black brick road to insanity.
"Tread" is not right – capers and skips
to the tune of "Merry Tod Malone",
naked he is born, naked and alone he'll die –
in the brief in-between he has a song on his lips –
far ahead, painful redemption, the eternal why.

John Tranter has a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong and is an Honorary Associate in the University of Sydney School of Letters, Arts and Media and an honorary member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He has published more than twenty collections of verse. His book Urban Myths: 210 Poems (2006) won four major state prizes, and his latest book, Starlight: 150 Poems won the Age Book of the Year poetry award and the Queensland Premier’s Award for Poetry, both in 2011. He is the founding editor of the free Internet magazine Jacket and he has a talkative homepage at johntranter.com.
 
 
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