“J’aprende ton presence a le vent.”

S.E.M.

Bella Principessa in maxima brava … j’escrivere a te.

J’aprrendre ton presence comme le vent.

Je suis in le premiere place a la Napoli, room 302 in the UNA Napoli. And i think of you, and write to you in three tongues.. But from one heart. My Australian one. Which you stole the day we first met. I was overwhelmed then. And salved. In the way that Italia has saved me from my past, and that time, and … now i move towards you.

I look north, with the statue of ‘il munocipio di napoli’ to my left, and i try to stand … firmly but lightly looking toward you in Paris.

But instead my eyes well with tears.

When you believe that these words are mine, you will know that I am yours.

Benjamin George Griffin.
Naples, Italia.

Qualia

I.

two wanderers
meet on the road
which that day
is a frozen food aisle

a glance
a joke
a walk
a spin
a glance
thrill and hesitation
leaning on a car bonnet
with groceries
and a pad of paper
we trade numbers

and part carrying
a thrill.

NO I DO

for the Negev Desert, Sky

I DO LOVE YOU
you beat on my chest
years ago
a bottle of tequila and a bubble bath between us
your tiny fists rain painful thumps
Nakedly
I say I don’t believe you
you can’t
you don’t
they aren’t innocent words
and yours isn’t an innocent voice
I say this
So I don’t have to say
I love you
too nakedly

NO I DO LOVE YOU!
Yelling and thumping

You will be embarrassed by this tomorrow
You will be embraced by me tommorrow
as I tease you relentlessly
because you’re a non-violent hippy
and you hit me relentlessly
You will be embarrassed for months
But I will remember it
your love
your tiny fists
your ‘innocent’ voice
years later
in the desert of prophets
that knows no innocence
or all of it
when I stare at the sky
blue and hot
and blank
I will remember
and believe
when I pick up a stone
and write

I LOVE YOU
too nakedly.

Suckerpunch Bliss

for one Haley Trotter
a poem from march 2008

Between the suckerpunch of the hangover
and the dizzy bliss of the bottle’s kiss…

What did I feel?
What should I feel, now?
I squint and think.
careful and a little distant.
like i imagine you.
as I imagine you.

Did we just… imagine?
All these recallable feelings, words and … lips
We just … dreamed?
all verbs and air and deep breath
when you were there under my lips
and my hips

How much pillowtalk was in your eyes
slightly frightened,
but hungry
big and deep and staring
your eyes
that next day
in your kitchen
tense
while you cleaned
me
away?

a pause

when all evil has passed you by,
and that soft light shines from within the world,
a pause.
that feels. like this.

Patience Darling

You’re not naive, just wilfully innocent-
not insincere, but insecure…
So don’t get this wrong:

I like that you’ve got teeth.
I like that you’ve got claws.
I love that you’ve got this special talent
for making
men
                                   yours…

Three Nicoles’ Couplets

Alas my fears are fruitless
  I have seen this face before
‘Twas all the mustered courage
  ‘Twas all the pain we had a’fore
Just to love you then, and again and again and again
… and now
                 by that door.

                                                          b