In this poem, the narrator, amongst ghosts and graveyards, reads the poem within the poem, stripping it on each successive reading by one line/two words, until it is reduced to its very essence, describing exactly how the narrator is feeling on this early morning drunken reverie: “dying”.
Ken Chau is a poet living in Melbourne, Australia. His poems have been published in Australia, France, Hong Kong, the UK and the USA. He is currently seeking a publisher for his collection of poems, Strawberries for Mr. Promise. He has never been to Volda, Norway but would like to go there one day.
my heart
is like
a graveyard
and people
are dying
to get in
3.55 am
saturday
volda
norway
my heart
a graveyard
and people
are dying
to get in
i wear
black cotton tights
black mid-thigh length sweatshirt skirt
black boat neck top
chipped black nailpolish
smudged black eyeshadow
week-old black hairdye
my heart
a graveyard
people dying
to get in
i podcast my ramblings my beliefs
in love rapture volcanoes
my slight complexes
about my accent
my heart
a graveyard
people dying in
outside the ghosts
of our love stumble
thru the paralytic winter
make love
with abandoned snowwomen
my heart
a dying graveyard
slip inside
hurl them out
onto the white ground speckled
with cigarette ash volcanic ash
my dying heart
& i light another
smoke swirling
out the apartment
towards the dawn
dying
