Keith Shorrocks Johnson Poems

Every man who has a serviceable soul
Is not whole but contains a chimera
The twin girl child of his earliest youth
Whose emotions live on enveloped.
...

Like us the year had life, was born and dies:
Its immediacy did not exist
Before we were born to sentience -
And all too soon will be dismissed.
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When young you were as stunning as the dawn
Red clouds threatening an impending storm
Older you are as lovely as the dusk
Quiet in twilight now the storm has passed.
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I love to cook two crispy snacks
Of Aussie grub and Kiwi tucker,
But the little crawlies both have knacks
Of gumming up my cooker.
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Yesterday we sort of rescued an old man
Who had crossed The Parade at Wakefield Park
Stumbled and cracked his head so hard on the pavement
That the paramedic could see his skull –
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In mid-year when the grass was thin
The buttercups would gild the fields
But when the hay was gathered in
Daisy-dust each swathe revealed.
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As the stars reverberate
I cup my ear to listen
And hear repeated
Resonating
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Economists are generally unromantic creatures
And visiting Hyderabad to make a presentation
On Public Sector Finance
I was more interested in buying cheap silk
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I stepped up taking both your hands in mine
They were delicate and cold and ghostly,
Flesh against metal contacting eerily:
I flinched slightly at our standing back time.
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But Strewth, the winnin'! Ow they loves this ‘frill
Scrabblin' with the kids at Bondi on the beach
When a ‘wowser' gets yous double-word
And Strine is spelt as well as heard:
...