whenever I
catch a glimpse of them warming up for another round of backchat I
feel all the politics run out of me i
n cartoon speech bubbles filled with Z’s and I
swear my tongue is now covered i
n revolutionary posters I
add moustaches and generous splashes of red to them I
see the landscape of Coke and Pepsi
vying for position and I
am sick with the heavy, two-party apathy – thi
s bullshit is like a shovel-blow to the head and I
‘m being offered a big fat price-reduction-placebo ri
ght after and I
hate having no answers because I
like to fix things, even if I
admit, every one of my good intentions i
s more a fleet of oxen-like handymen but I
am determi
ned to set things right as I
trample things instead, well aware that I
move like a lost Stooges routine and so after so many fai
lures I
stop
and end up making so little noise that I
well suspect my vote and my lines never stirred the water.
Ashley Capes is a poem novelist and teacher from Victoria and a big fan of Studio Ghibli.