Michael Batchelor's Blog, page 3

Dad Part II

So it’s happened
Our hunch was true
And there’s nothing, tragically
That we can do

So they’ve sold the house
Signed the will
And all that’s left
Is the trudge downhill

Now every visit
The elephant sits in the corner
And I look at Dad
Like an early mourner

But we still have time
To be together
So I take it, I enjoy it
And pretend like its forever

Doubting Michael

They say seeing is believing
And so now
I have to run around my mind
With a garbage bag
Putting in
My dreams
My imagination
My emotions
My soul
Before tying the bag up
And tossing it away
Because I only feel these things
And feelings are nothing
Absolutely nothing
At all

Announcement

I'm thrilled to announce that my poetry collection, The Space Between Lightning and Thunder, will be released soon. Stay tuned!

Youth

You don’t lose it overnight
It’s a slow death
Like the moving of seasons
And it’s rarely the mind
That dies
No
It’s the body
The spirit
That gets sucked from you
From years of work
From failed dreams
From growing responsibilities
And when you finally
Look at yourself
In the mirror
And the hair’s gone
And the gut’s bigger
And the eyes…
That’s when you realise
It’s gone
Even though its been gone
For a while
But it only feels
Like yesterday

The Good Moments

Standing next to waving Walt
At the Magic Kingdom
Walking past still boats
Moored to the Hobart shore
Watching a snow-capped Mount Fuji
From a warm bullet train
Looking down at Lennox Head
From the top of a lighthouse hill

These are the moments
That I look back on
During dull moments
To get me through
To the next one

Empath

Feelings are contagious
And I have a low
Immune system

Ideas

I come up with
All these ideas
That in my head
Are perfect
And pure
But when it comes time
To writing them down
Something happens
Between my brain
And my fingers
That muddies the idea
And it comes out
Awkward and crude
And it’s frustrating
Because I’m desperate
To put these perfect
Pure ideas
On the page
With not a word
Out of order
But for now
I guess my brain
And my fingers
Aren’t talking

The Christmas Card

Just when I thought
Everyone was out for themselves
And nobody cares
For their fellow man
I go to the letterbox
This afternoon
And find a Christmas card
That reads:
Dear Neighbour
Merry Christmas
From Sandy, Paul and Josh
(Unit 4)
I’ve never met them
But I guess they've read
Leviticus

The Delinquent

I was visiting my best friend
One day
But when I got there
He wasn’t home yet
So I decided
To kill time
By driving aimlessly
Through the suburban streets
But after about five minutes
I started to worry about
All the fuel I was burning
So I decided to park
Down some random street
A few minutes passed
Then a man
Driving a ute
Drove by
Saw me
Watching him
From the car
And gave me a suspicious look
Before parking in his driveway
Naturally this terrified me
So I quickly
Put the car in gear
And drove away
The man
Clearly paranoid
Backed out of his driveway
And started chasing me
Up and down
The suburban streets
Through the roundabouts
Tailgating me
Beeping his horn
The slow and the furious
Eventually he overtook me
Stuck his hand out
And ordered me to pull over
Being the agreeable
Teenager that I was
I pulled over
Killed the engine
And quietly shat myself
The man got out of the car
And holy shit
He was a mammoth
Wearing a white singlet
And footy shorts
Stomping towards me
With a mean look on his face
He tapped on my window
And I winded it down an inch
Enough to let a fly escape
He leaned in
And with a deep, angry voice, said:
“Why didn’t ya stop?”
I didn’t say anything
I thought it was obvious
“Why were ya parked out the front of me house?”
Again I didn’t say anything
Because the answer was absurd
And he surely wouldn’t believe it
“You know there’s been a lotta break-ins lately?”
I did not, but I wasn’t surprised
It was a dodgy neighbourhood
Especially with delinquents
Like me driving around
The man just stood there
Waiting for an answer
But after seeing the fear
In my eyes
And gauging that I was
Just a dumb teenager
He eventually walked back to his car
Fired it up
And hooned away

Every

I wish I could
See every country
Swim every ocean
Climb every mountain
See every thunderstorm
Eat every dish
Drink every drink
Take every drug
See every painting
Hear every song
Read every book
Watch every movie
Pat every dog
Kiss every girl
Hold every baby
Feel every feeling
Know everyone
Love everyone
Live every one