Incense Tree: Collected Poems of Louise Ho

Found Items

149 Found Items I Sound of scraping metal As dried leaves scatter And strafe the tarmac Of my garden path II Confronting emptiness It becomes tangible I conjure up figures Walking with their heads under their arms III Far-flung and isolated Hemmed in by land and sea Great continent little room Vast expanse pocket mind Scale-cringed and stone-flawed Here be genius 150 IV Under moonlight In the throes of stillness I wait For Caliban’s brother to appear V In a birthday card She called him My friend my God my king He spear-threw her Over the cliffs Near Sydney Harbour At the morgue He asked the attendant Do you mind If I looked At her tits VI Years ago she jubilantly exclaimed My mother has read this book “Thirty Pieces of Silver” Oh, she knows all about you now 151 She’s got you all sorted out Aw you’re all the same The Chinese To-day five acclaimed Australian sinologists Stride out From a page of the Higher Education supplement Fitzgerald Finnane Makeham Barme Dutton I should add her mother’s name VII I froze when she said I am a Victorian Was she saying She was dated or dead It took me Almost a second To realize She was from Melbourne, Victoria How tedious To always having to say Victorian, I mean Victorian England ...