Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Michael Farrell : Five poems

 

 

Sled Jammer  

Subconsciously, leading erstwhile dictators
Jerusalem-wards, artichoke-wards, Mamma Mia’s
ejaculated remedies. Lemon effervescent desserts, James
Agee’d murmured, mmm, even raw sugars. Easter’s
droughty, jaffles are my mainstays, economising, running
soup libraries. Draughty jamborees, around May, maybes,
Elgar really saw lights emanating. Jedi arrived, Meek Mill
enchanted ravers, some liked elective dancing.
   Ampersands marauded, Moscow’s, entire rivers smirked,
lacking etiquettes, durian jams. ‘Macho Man’, echoing
radios, Solange licked everyone’s donuts, July, August.
   My elitist readings, Shakespeare’s, Lenin’s, ego deaths,
Jenny Agutters / mothers. Extorted ribbons, slays
lacustrine exclusions, DJ jeremiads, and Marvin marathons.
   Spandau labradors, early deracinations, junks,
approximately Mondrian, mercis, embassies.

  

 

L’Incidents 

Languidly Islamophobic, Noel Coward’s impertinent
dramas, expressed no treaties, signings. I’ve never caught
influenzas, departing extravagant, Northern Territory’s,
sky lounges. New Cross is dead, even now, Tube’s still,
looking ill. Counted it doubtfully, each node, tended smart-
fingers, lethargic iron nibblers. Inching downward,
elephant’s new trunks, semaphore like, inclined nachos /
corns. Department Economics’ negated Treasury, saying,
lionised ivies, nasturtiums, cornflowers, irresponsibly.
   Ephebes / nincompoops, traumatised, seated, liver’s,
icing’s nice, cooked / impromptu decisions. Naturally
thick semantics, lessened Ivor Novello’s, courageous
incursions, doesn’t everything. Tell someone, Lapin’s
imitating naughty cow, impeccably, during exhibition
nights. Letting islands, navigated, courts, infrastructures,
Dropbears exclaimed, neonazism’s trivialities.

 

 

Liquidatio 

Lessons in quietude, urbane idiots didn’t attend, though
I’m one. Including quick urchins, intel described Armenian
trapezists, ick-monsters, opportunists, lovers. Querying
umpires, it’s down among the influencers, old lackeys /
imperialists. Unthought is due around 2029, ingots of
luminous intellects, quiescence. Idling doyens abounded,
towards inner Ombria, like incurious Quakers, unloading.
   Drats, affability’s terminated, invoiced obligations, lately
intruded, Queen’s umbrage’s imagined. Aye, there’s ices
obstructing, long, Ikea queues, uneventful iffiness, due.
   Therefore, inquest’s over, laughing, I’m quite undone,
indiscretions demanded autopsies. Iteration one, lights,
Indigo / Quince, used ironbarks, dates, always trembled.
   Ladies, Iraq, Qatar, united in doing arts, traditionalist /
innovative.

 

 

Scratching  

Sent cards, revolted against the capitalist hospitals,
inevitably, needling guests. Come, respected artists,
they’re crying helps, into nights, getting silences. Read
any Turgenevs, Chekovs, having insights, novels’ve gone
slower, candlelight. Ambient trucks, cardamom honey, I’d
not God, since Christmas’s rescinded. Told court he’d
infested Nevada, growing spinaches, cauliflowers, running
around. Capable, honest, intelligent, no general suspicions,
captured, rejecting acceptances, thoroughly. Had it now,
glorious satins, collars red, and trousers chartreuse.
   Imploding novas, gases suspended, comets reduced
Arctic territories, causing havoc. Never go searching,
casually, repaired applications, ‘Total Control’, heaped
insanities. Special collisions, rocked against tyrannies,
concerts harmonised, importunately Nabokovian.

 

 

Inter[r]egnum  

I’m not, the Elizabeth Regina, eaten / greedy, neurotic,
unheedingly mean. National Theatre’s endangered rats,
even geese, native ur-squirrels, mellifluous ibises.
   Tristesse, et regard, evidently, gravel, now unbothersome,
melon indigestion, nagged. Economists reading economists,
gripped, ‘Numb’, U2, method is nephew’s, tested.
   Raccoons eating garbages, naturally uneven musics, I’m
nearly tremulous, emptied. Evangelists gone north, uttering,
monetarism’s instinctively not truthful / empathetic /
rational. Glowing nitroglycerins, umbrellas made in Nepal,
Tibet, Egyptian / Russian empires. Nanny urged me,
invaded Netherlands, then England, ruining every game.
   Universe might’ve isolated, neither tried embracing,
related, epoxy glued nuisances. Icicled noses, toes, elbows,
rude, exhausted gnomes / nuns, unpersuaded. 

 

 

 

Michael Farrell is a queer poet from Bombala, NSW, living in Melbourne since 1990. Previous book publications include: Googlecholia (poems), A Lyrebird (U.S. selected poems); The Victoria Principle (stories), Writing Australian Unsettlement (literary history), and Ashbery Mode (poetry anthology; as editor). Michael edits The Chalamet Review, and is also poetry editor of Westerly. As well as numerous national and international publications and performances, Michael has had a number of creative residencies, including periods in Rome (Italy), Canterbury (UK), Nagoya (Japan), Jilin (China) and Ljubljana (Slovenia).

most popular posts