Maybe all the pin-downable things
have been pinned, framed on walls
like a collector’s set of old butterflies,
and we can all regress now
in a stew of ancient enmities,
terrorists and politicians leading the way.
Let’s rid ourselves of every stupid veneer,
abandon the futile attempt at elevation
and get back to the pit,
the arena, the whirl and thrust of blade,
the flashing wheels of charioteers,
the audience baying for blood
to soak the sand.
Let’s string up the do-gooders,
the saints among us, the artists and poets,
the agitators for rights, equalities,
endlessly cheeping away like hungry birds,
cheep cheep, cheep cheep;
let’s pin them to sandbags
with blooming red arcs of bullets
across their self-righteous chests.
David Adès will be returning to Australia shortly after living for five years in Pittsburgh. He is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet and short story writer and the author of Mapping the World (Wakefield Press / Friendly Street Poets, 2008) and the chapbook Only the Questions Are Eternal (Garron Publishing, 2015).
David won the Wirra Wirra Vineyards Short Story Prize (2005). Mapping the World was commended for the Fellowship of Australian Writers Anne Elder Award 2008.
David has been a member of Friendly Street Poets since 1979. He is a former Convenor of Friendly Street Poets and co-edited the Friendly Street Poetry Reader 26. He was also one of a volunteer team of editors of the inaugural Australian Poetry Members Anthology ‘Metabolism’ published in 2012. His poetry has been published in numerous journals in Australia and the U.S. with publications also in Israel, Rumania and New Zealand.
David’s poems have been read on the Australian radio poetry program Poetica and have also featured on the U.S. radio poetry program Prosody. He is one of 9 poets featured on a CD titled “Adelaide 9”. In 2014 David won the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize 2014 and was shortlisted for the Newcastle Poetry Prize.