to stave off the inevitable conclusion
that there was no longer any meaning to anything any more
i committed myself
to the rigorous observation
of nonsense and whimsy
to watch a baby wagging his feet in a pram
at just the precise moment
he loses a shoe
the waitress at my Korean restaurant
delivers my Bang Bang Chicken saying
“here is your meal - so hot
it will make you cry”
a TV special on Mao’s Mausoleum
shows the leader
waxy in repose
his face, a little sterner perhaps,
but almost as childlike as yours
when you slept
and I realise:
even despots dream.
About this poem
The sad passing of another beautiful, interesting old lady – my grandmother.
About Eleanor Jackson
Eleanor Jackson is a poet based sometimes in Melbourne and sometimes in Papua New Guinea and temporarily in Brisbane. When she is in Australia she can get fixated with things homely and humble; she often writes about the quiet things. Eleanor is responsible for bringing together the amazing poets of a spoken word map of the Melbourne CBD, www.melbournepoetrymap.com. Her work has been published in journals such as “Going Down Swinging” and “Cordite Poetry Review”; presented on radio at RRR, Radio National, and online at Indiefeed Performance Poetry Channel; and performed at the Melbourne Writers Festival and Overload Poetry Festival.
