A week ago I was in Hong Kong Two, London Three, Paris Four, Berlin No wonder I feel I don’t fit in I’m suffering withdrawal from Restaurants and shopping Campari and trains But the strangest feeling is that If I were to walk down the street And jump on the Tube I’d be in Covent […]
Waking from a deep sleep The first again in my own bed I knew I was home But no longer where home was Hong Kong? London? Paris? Berlin? Not here Australia Where the sun moves backwards Across a ridiculously blue sky And the shadows fall strangely © Ian Lilburne 2010
A week of site seeing and shopping Of catching the ferry to Kowloon To buy tailored clothes Have high tea in the Peninsula Hotel Watch the light show laser trace the towers And drink Campari in Felix’s Bar Of catching the tram from Wan Chai to Sheung Wan To buy Chinese souvenirs in Cat Lane […]
What worse fate For someone with serious Aspirations Than to be labelled An amateur? The perennial also ran Someone who hasn’t Paid their dues Who tries and tries But never breaks through Who always makes The same mistakes Whatever they do Then moves on Before learning Forever yearning To be taken seriously Not dismissed As […]
The rhythm Of colour and line A dance of the eye Captures me Enraptures me Taking me somewhere Beyond Somewhere Reflectively Free But I’ve got to be in the mood © Ian Lilburne 2010
The longer I stay in Europe The more I question Australia The obsession with sport The trivial media The political ineptitude The treatment of Aboriginal people The genocide of their culture The selfish attitude toward refugees The lack of critical culture Commercial TV The lack of credible political debate The dearth of credible politicians The […]
White Australia’s lived a dream Our sunny optimism Has never been challenged By a brutal regime No-one has forced us Gun at our heads To concede integrity Relinquish morality No henchmen Have frog-marched us Into infamy It’s made us smug ‘I’d never do that’ But how d’ you know You wouldn’t act Selfishly Cruelly Do […]
A family of women Up the Eyeful Tower All had the same tic American Heavy faced and brassy They stood in the queue On the second platform Nearing the elevator And realizing in turn They didn’t have tickets They all pulled the same face Their lips pouted Sphincter-tight Then twisted impossibly To one side First […]
He is my friend But I’ve never known if He likes or respects me His hospitality says so But I’ve never been sure I like and respect him Despite his English refusal To show any emotion There’s an odd bond between us A marriage of mirror opposites Reflections reversed Both observers Outside the conventions And […]
I wandered into The Pitti Palace Gallery of Modern Art Thinking I might find Hidden there The odd Picasso or Braque But this modernity Ended at Napoleon And his restoration There was a bust of him Larger than life Obliquely angled To catch the light His Corsican gaze Roman Classical Just as he’d like it […]