demotion ("A stressed syllable may realise an offbeat when it occurs between two stressed syllables" - Derek Attridge):

Martine Bellen, Hey Diddle Diddle

hen in the berries, juice on the feathers, hooves on the dancers, cup of night. milkstream. gentle ferns on the river, trailing fingers in the river, & roots push in the mud. rain on the stems banks and dribbles. rain patter and chill. 

cysts on my intestines!
cysts on my intestines, you make me want to sleep
you make me want to cancel all my classes and drift
over playgrounds on the hot hot breeze
make me go right down in my energy right down
to the television aisle in the large appliance store
float between the channels push around on the tides
of sound sleep moving
wake sleep cruising on the crowded escalators

got nasty drugs to kill the bugs
nasty drugs to kill the bugs
amoebas stop mobbing my innards
stop cramping me in the night
& washing out my will
on a wave of shit each day

got drugs to pop you like balloons
I want my energy back

if, in the dead of night, you have to seize chickens from the higher branches of a magnolia, muffle your baby's ears and grab the rooster first. 

small baby's tongue quivering on its root - free in the air like the clapper of a bell

a blind woman in the dole office queue - the case manager says 'follow me' and walks off

five children of different ages, up for adoption together: Quinta, Quinte, Quintara, Quintare, Quintea.
"Quintara and Quintea are making progress with processing their feelings about possible adoption and have chosen not to be photographed at this time."

it's all about the flight paths at the moment. seeing out, having a view. it helps so much here, where it's so hard to be outside. view skating along the buzzing green tips of the trees where they are respiring in the light. sea apples, angsanas, rain-trees, broad-leaf mahoganies.

and after dark the campus lights, quiet and peaceful. among these sorts of pleasures I feel guilty about having requested a bigger place, so I could work easier, so we didn't kill each other, so we could have more happiness. about having air-conditioning on so our things don't mould. it niggles and nags. I don't know how to make peace with the needs of the self that actively take something from others.