floats down river
worries about mud lice
and loss of power
stops in no parking zones
will recall
a brief encounter
with a Gospel piano
enters the playground of roofs
yields nothing
to hungry dogs
or startled onlookers
no longer holds
blood orange
and old sausage
bumps into bridges
asks nothing of river bank
mourns broken seals
steals past ships
notes other white goods
on top of cars
at the bottom
of swimming pools
cannot avoid direct sunlight
releases carbon slowly
into surging brown water
born to beer
once dated an esky
hovers over houses
is alarmed by outboard motor
drifts past factories
plays dodgem with bus stops
glides through the drive through
carries no change
does not order
a fudge sundae
bears more than it’s own weight
ferries the last of the sea gulls
wishes for a raincoat
finds a broken umbrella
asks a drowned cat
how many lives?
David Stavanger – aka Ghostboy – is the Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde of Australian poetry. David’s poetry has been widely published in the likes of FourW, foame:e, Going Down Swinging and The Spoken Word Revolution: Redux (USA). His new collection of poetry And the Ringmaster Said… was released by Small Change Press in 2008. Ghostboy won the Performance Poetry World Cup (2005) establishing him as one of Australia’s most innovative spoken “weird” artists. He has been QLD’s “slammaster” since 2005 coordinating two of the nations biggest slam events in the Australian Poetry Slam (Queensland) and the WordFood slam at the Woodford Folk Festival. Ghostboy also fronts punk kabaret act Ghostboy with Golden Virtues and has performed his work on ABC & Triple J radio. Festivals featured at include the Brisbane Writers Festival, Byron Bay Writers Festival, Tasmanian Poetry Festival, and ‘NightWords’ at the Sydney Opera House.
