Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 1 Peter Anderson • * published POEMS IN PUBLIC PLACES THE FRAGILITY OF SHADOWS ACCEPTED Meuse A clwowiedgements: Herge. Free Information. Dedicated to t he M emory o.flngeborg Bachmann 20th CENTURY SLEEPING BEAUTY I CHRIST EXPOSED TO CLOUD THE ISSUE WITH IN THE WARDROBE CAR PERFORMANCE THE FRAGILITY OF SHADOWS SILENCE IS SILENCE what do i want . SEVEN YEARS I THIRTEEN REFLECTIONS i ii. iii. iv. v. Typeset bylenn{e vi. vii. viii. ix. Pn'nted & Published by Plan<>t Press Pry. Ltd. Ph. 52 7828 x. xi. xii. xiii. Robert Whyte THE FUR COAT IN HELL OXALIS COLLECT THE FIRE ROOMS MONARCHY THE AGGRESSIVE MAN THE RESCUSITATING ANGEL CONTENTMENT FOR THE BEAST HEIGHTENED FLESH TONES INCIDENTAL DUST ACCENTS HESITANCY SOUND THE GALLOWS MACHINE AGREEMENT THE GATES ELEVEN BELLS WITHIN ISBN 0 908193 02 5 Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 2 trying to confuse you you try to convince yourself to take your poetry serious a task we tend to avoid by turning out the light Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 3 20th CENTU RV SLEEPING BEAUTY I CHRIST EXPOSED i see you cornered on the far side of the room and between us i see thorns the thorns that are pricking your skulJ on the inside in my hands i am able to free you from the pain and torment Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 4 TO CLOUD THE ISSUE from behind the page there is a light that shines so brightly that it is impossible to look into it with out blinding the eye the page is there to protect you from its severe glow the words are too thin to be read stare at the page to avoid looking into the light in its shadow ican not see your eyes GLARE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK \1 ) I~,\ I) Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 5 WITH IN THE WARDROBE in my i must reveal to you this moment from this prison darkness i have nothing nothing the darkness restricts my senses to the extent that i find my eyes become clouded colours emerge of their own accord tho my eyes are open it is as if they were shut tight squeezed together appearing only as folds of skin lashes i want to explain to you the nothing i am experiencing to deliver to you in your external world the essence of non existn~ VI='RrJCtt. LOBE before i climbed into this wardrobe i was able to view its exterior examine the carved doors and the reflection of myself and but that was before you were here and so it was only my reflection now i talk to you from behind the door from behind the mirror and hope that you see it as me talking not just a wardrobe disconnected · sounds that form speach patterns flood through your ears rush about behind the mirrors of your eyes amongst the jelly of your brain i hope you see it as me because i can not see inside or outside i am trapped where once i placed my empty clothes my fine thin skins i have captured my naked body i talk to you stripped bare naked naked naked you look hard into the mirror try and see through the plugged key hole it would do you no good all is darkness in my world all is darkness my mind is sharp hands have eyes tonglies slither over the rough surfaces of the interior how am i to reveal myself without emerging i beg you to look into the mirror see there is fear in my eyes i am still talking about nothing i see in your eyes you have come up close and noticed the thousands of images smashing back into your brain i'm coming out with Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 6 CAR V 0 fingers flying over the keys over the wires that link through the insulators and round twists and disconnexions and over · ·- poles standing alone on hills never alone always connected . watch the wires the wired move in loops alongside the railway line waves of desire of time and motion the static stationary tic tic tic tic tic tic tic - tic type out the message telex bursting dcr.vn in electric currents washing the pebbles and shells busting over rocks with t.'1e hisssss of cars and conversation waves and the stationary pole a barrier to the car as it moves off the wet road wraps its body love transport words scream the gJass shatters the vofce hands rriove the s econds are dripping away blood and the telephone wire is d w 0 n t s a r i n I n g just enough to get us wet Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 7 PERFORMANCE D_ynamic Controls: into my hands and you are trapped in the corner of the room i see your body s1 umped against the wall your eyes plead soft deer eyes and i see you are an animal resigned to the prison of your barbed wire your brambles your thorn hedge your enclosure takes up half the room in your corner there is one end of the wire it bobs and springs like some supple branch some never flowering rose through the metal entanglement of barbed wire you call out with your eyes free me free me i gingerly take hold of theta ngle of rusty wire thorns that separate us and begin to pull at the scratching my hand i let go and the wires spring back into my hands you plare a pair ofwire cutters now the assault begins in earnest you understand try to get up bu the thicket is too dense and the thorns scratch at your back and neck your eyes cry heart screams mind dreams of the thorns cutting into the rusted wire bits are dropped aside they lie bent branches about my feet the edges of my path are sharp your eyes the ease of returning and remaining you try will me to move on to get up again but sink real~ing the pain in movement and i continue cutting and pulling steel on steel and i reach you and we drag ourselves out to the empty room over broken branches blood mingles we stand close and the deer in my mind isinmyarms her soft the wire rune~ are left on the page where you gave them to me Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 8 THE FRAGILITY OF SHADOWS when i was small i apparently broke a very expensive piece of china; it was a couple reading soft blue a little boy and girl arms about eachother both reading a book the books pages were white just empty i broke the girls arm just near the elbow. glaze with you i feel the same as i do when i pick up the china couple as if you were fragile and easy to break easy as easy as putting my arm about you your body feels soft and yet because of their closeness to my hands your ribs feel china beneath your skin your eyes also have a breakable look about them they are not brittle but could melt and allow the colours in them to fuse they resist crying for that reason alone the browns and whites merging as they do into shadow and you hang your head to hide some of the brittleness in your naked spirit something i could break with a word a look a touch your body lends itself to gentleness to just holding to lying beside in love making there contours mixed strength is a barrier of structural fragility that can not so much be felt as sensed as if the full force of one body and yours would bring collapse the pressure of hands as they run down the back as atr ts expelled from the lungs forcing out the last drops the last gasp the rush back in the drive for oxygen hand movement a descriptive movements series of hand i hold my hands in front of me as if you were enclosed as if your shoulders were in the palms i move them over your skin gently curving around the sides of the arms measuring your over width they move now down over your back beside the ribs to the base of the ribcage you breath in in now they fee) the texture of your the barriers of pockets the ridges and yet beneath it all is cJothes the smoothness of your flesh skin muscle my hands move across your clothes and join i interweave my fingers and breath in tightening my whole body the muscles in you move beneath my hands and you are breathing i stop and look at the shadows falling over the keys anmkl; . ./cq somewhere in the forests of my mind a deer stops notices and runs away Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 9 WITH IN THE WARDROBE V~Cit. i must reveal to you this moment from this prison in my the darkness restricts my senses darkness i have nothing nothing to the extent that i find my eyes ~ome clouded colours emerge of their own accord tho my eyes are open it is as if they were shut tight squeezed together appearing only as folds of skin lashes i want to explain to you the nothing i am experiencing to deliver to you in your external world the essence of non existn~ LoBe before i climbed into this wardrobe i was able to view its exterior examine the carved doors and the reflection of myself and but that was before you were here and so it was only my reflection now i talk to you from behind the door from behind the mirror and hope that you see it as me talking not just a wardrobe disconnected · sounds that form speach patterns flood through your ears rush about behind the mirrors of your eyes amongst the jelly of your brain i hope you see it as me because i can not see inside or outside i am trapped where once i placed my empty clothes my fine thin skins i have captured my naked body i talk to you stripped bare naked naked naked you look hard into the mirmr try and see through the plugged key hole it would do you no good all is darkness in my world all is darkness my mind is sharp hands have eyes tongties slither over the rough surfaces of the interior how am i to reveal myself without emerging i beg you to look into the mirror see there is fear in my eyes i am still talking about nothing i see in your eyes you have come up close and noticed the thousands of images smashing back into your brain i'm coming out with Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 10 T~1re SILENCE IS SILENCE Billion Peop]e only the dead are sure of the rights they have been given in the marble hill next to the descriptive road where cars move daily. twisted stones hang back from the rubber tyres iron bodies wheelless and engine broken the little tear gland that goes. the type writer go and the clock beside it on the desk and the still movement that brings about today and yesterday and the upright word on the page is soundless the empty spaces between the lines and letters who does not understand but watches empty spaces and follows only his fingers as they move ensuring that he does not over the key board press more than one key at a time into a punchline a jam of tangled metal. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 11 ·what do i want to write you so f2r into my life that you cant get out to cross the conversation to an extent where it becomes wi~hng i could bug your more than just tangents telephone and write in even the things i can only guess fictionalise bolster your ego by saying even (and make an uncertain gesture) thats beautiful too Thinh what you might do do i need to explain anymore with a materia\ that's 97% nothing.... Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 12 SEVEN YEARS I THIRTEEN REFLECTIONS i. only half a dozen left by the time we arrived so we took them there would be no more for a few days and most of them would be broken with in the hour such fragile things their power no less great because oftheir fragility and ours we were they were the proof the existence the reality our existence our · only proof inverted proof that we lay in bed and watched turning my back i was not so sure the power was a little mislaid but our positive identification was no less positive because of our lack of certainty only half a dozen of us took them but with careful organisation we were able to recreate a crowded city street lay still in perfect solitude beneath the sheets our backs to the window Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 13 ..11. fragmented sharpness cut deep into the lack of solidity and fluidity the cut air and my hand the stone strength tossed through space creating solid spaces in pockets of airlessness only the most fleeting part of a second and times face cracked by sonar bleeps of soundless' light jagged edges cut against eachother and the formation was in the miniscule gap between the edge of one space and the next iii. incarnate glass angles through walls and air realisation of image deprived light batters darkness omniscient spirit and call with jets of water from fountains and the hollow in the spray that clings tight to your shirt and he lay on his bed and thought about just how little he knew about the lack of knowledge forced him to drop the subject cringe in the corner vainly cry out loud build the walls he must to keep apart from both himself and those who would see him as he was unable to see himself inverted his left being the right Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 14 iv. occuri ng in the mitTor of the mind the break back to the future and again round the edge of the liquid tears that were part of the eye deep image reflection in the blue/ brown/green and looking hard it was possible to discern myself looking hard V. lay down and tO)'ed with the space between fingers and hands and backs of them and palms tossed the present about with the past and still left the future dangling in front of my eyes on a thread i missed and the flying glass lept out and cut deep dates flash by me crashing fills all spaces and the solid boundary that was no longer the future Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 15 . VI. vii . down streets where shoppers shop and we walked confused and never sure of the rights we could exercise looking at us and them from behind their clear boundaries the barriers becoming more important than the lookers in streets where we walked it was not where we walked that was important but beside where we were walking slowly so slowly when lights were turned on and off and the sun set moved on plate glass began to echo call lights flashes and the faces and the people were never alone but walked and moved and stop and look and see through and into the echos of themselves and the lights behind and in front of and the multiplicity was on the other side not on the side we stood moving round v.ith darkness lit by lights through glories and diamonds cut and lights and wall hung pictures and the doors crystal entry whispers of the silence of the contradiction of the unseen and the blind man and the crys of the vermilion echoed round caverns of the walls of ears and sneezed mist at five a m i was wide awake so blue girl who listened with intense interest followed and saw life in the river as the cut diamonds fell from the jarred fence and the cows mist was dispersing hooves sounded on the holJow of green in there a droplet of yellow and the sky changing shape and cloudless with the colours changing on her face she asked me who i was going to be i looked down from the bank into the water and was not sure that i was sure we both went a water rat Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 16 viii. little strewn about my head i find bits combing bits of broken glass splinters becomes almost dangerous as slithers cut into my scalp and i am unable to see as the mirror lies in my hair and in the sunlight i have a radiance in shadow danger raining i am threatening to shake my head to split the scalpel flashes out and severs the strings to the balloons and away float the clouds and the men who watched me shaving was as i cut away at my face worse unseen my razor cutthroat flies over now without a nose i stand can feel a red hand toes move away broken now at from the dropped blade the joint between ivory handle hand slices as i run it through my hair in agony the pain spikes slice the door as i move to escape fixed to the wood and i see suddenly on the wall a man hanging by the neck glass fans ix. four of them made up the total number of the numbers we were sure existed by were confused by because none of us were sure if it was us or them someone found the correct angulation we began to organise them with the angles right so that the sun would never glare so that we could see over or through to ourselves and the outside Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 17 . XI. x. back facing i watch you move towards me and pick up the knife and plunge it deep into my back blood mingling with fragments the shattered silver crunching under our feet as we grapple to regain what we thought you had destroyed in both of us join the segments of the square with crazed love lines looking deep into the submerged lake beneath the levels of rock and dirt and soil and grass and small fungi and little wild fl o we~ and slightly larger bushes and shrubs and saplings and minor trees and major trees and air and cloud and never emptyness the moon va nished as the water was disturbed by the first imperceptible rays of vague sunlight and the underside of the belly of the mountain was lit azure blind man felt it the crack of the light on the rock dazed eye covered he reeled feeling the pull of the blue feel smashing my brain back through screaming vermilion Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 18 xiii. xii. elipticaly you moved over the shattering surface cutting deep your knifed feet carving and the moist spray flecked the smooth surface under it all the continuing continuum moved unseen towards. the seeting boundary between sky and sea epilepticly you drank staggered and tumbled towards the line and flung knives and broken bottles in a vain though brave attempt to fuse sea with the unsure sky moist spray flecked you saw what i was doing but could not hear the visi_on and i w~s unsure ofwhere i moved to and from i knew the bounds of my existence but was unsure of where i was going to find · the boundary between you and me and if that barrier was to be felt seen or smelt i looked at your eyes pouring through at me and was still confused and disturbed beauty and perhaps lust for the unknown or pure lust or force and i became distracted from my task and ran fast over the tangled wire and holes and the whistling shells and stakes and smashed out of my grey into your light and the brightness and the sounds volume mounted and thrust deep into my senses i am revealed and a smper shatters Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 19 ,~ ~ I I I \ THE FUR COAT IN HELL Mammoths hide in the ice, turning, matted sides and glistening tusks, polished and new. The locksmith travels nearby, the ice hammers in his hands. Handed down glacie~ seen from the windows of the glass-house. Inside they replace their tropical splendour. Falling hours and days, lost graces suffered in vain by the church. The belltower climbs the stairs to the red room. The locksmith follows. Particles of unmade matter light his way. / Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 20 OXALIS COLLECT The blinded boys strike out in the night. Glittering weights spin out. Glass shatters upon contact. They travel, and they turn. Their way is stood over by the influence of the. neutron star, concentrated weight and matter, its density internalizing their emotions. A sense of urgency replaces their eyes with bits of white hot metal. The chips scatter and scald the air. Militant swans parade gracefully before the king of the theatre, they agree to teach him their routines, and return, double paced, marking out their steps. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 21 THE FIRE ROOMS Lost halls fall into the imtitutes, the fire rooms, vaults, where the archaeologist and the locksmith sit all night passing back blank cheques. Their signatures are counterfeit, they cramp their hands in despair. Memory has dealt with them, and they can no lo!'ger return. So they are turnmg demands a ' left without money in the lost halls, and ~ery The design settles their ways. 1be folding doors look out upon the yellow sands and sea, the ice crystals tum in the air and the locksmith his soft words falling without sound moves forward to touch their glistening fonns with his sdl: red lips, they shatter and spear. ree. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 22 MONARCHY Emissaries of all nations were escorted to prepared chambers where they conferred in secret, dealing with matters of great consequence in an ordered manner. The accuracy of invitation is remarked upon by all those present. Waters hurried back and forth beside the bay, as the limbless men and women cast their glistening nets to trap the tide. Swift storms of frenzied winds travelled below the radar horizons to attack the sun. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 23 THE AGGRESSIVE MAN The gunsmith walked concealed by darkness, webbing partially displayoo, struts and fixed p<jnts gliding back and forth, other areas were concealed by a lack of study. Slight undulations. broad rivers, etc. He was approaching a more or less civilized area, buildings and streets and streetlamps. Was it the sunlight that initated him? Distinct shadows were cast from the towers of the knitting mills. In the distance the sea glittered. The shadows leant across the road , approaching the sea, to touch its coppered waves. Degrees of constancy Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 24 1r1HIIE J[J) lE CILll NfE THE RESCUSITAnNG ANGEL Attitudes cover for the discrepancies. Then complex systems engineer the divisions. The unlocked sphere is emptied within energy drive sanctuaries. Even when the sphere was unlocked the dead souls were quaking in their boots. Entire galaxies run aground in the court of ap;ets ~­ It was a hard court and a court without mercy. The sphere was emptied out ' .,. and the substance was replace by unmade matter. The cryptic vault e<>ul4 not be better protected. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 25 CONTENTMENT FOR THE BEAST Even as their paths cross they fight. The landscape is severely outlined in these patterns of light and shade. The beast is kneedeep in winter, the locksmith is half a world away in the magnified hours of summer, whiling them away. 1be seams of the snow, arranged like coverlets and sewn together, are badly tied underneath, and none of them can sleep. All those who sleep under the snow, and the beast is one of them. The beast delivers his ultimatum. It is its third hearing, first by the priest, then by the surgeon , and now by the beast himself. Surely now it will be passed by the governor. Silence halts the movement of any voice. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 26 HEIGHTENED FLESH TONES The xylophone bells clang and the engineers tip up their trucks to assault the skies. It was during these hours that they would study the stylized formulae of the classical night. Bridges spanning the two continents as they drift into place. The moment settles the grids together and they lock. It is a heart a rrest and a house arrest. The sound bars baffie the courtesy zone, the baffles cut oft' the zone and the movement of outside forms drain energy drives away. How long is a piece of string theory? Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 27 INCIDENTAL DUST - Indicators set. The locksmith returns. The eye returns and fails to recognize the room, even though it once lived there'. The locksmith leaves after a squabble. They listen to make the silences loud. The darkening colours cross the sky in girderwork constructions. The eye is beset by difficulties. and has to contend with ivory splendours, slenderness, the slight fonn of conjured delicacy. The female presence, approaching from within the divided moment. The locksmith and the eye together again, listening within, inside poised moments to still, to embark from, to exhaust all divisible moments. Against the advice of all his council the king of the theatre has decided to have his voice amplified. Quickening fires and coils of inducted elements turn away, insistently rekindled lights doused time after time in hazes of cast shadows. ·~ ......... Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 28 ACCENTS The la& man alive still making toreador passes before the stadium. The crests of the sand banks fall, and settle down into stone. The stationary winds, halted at the fall of hours, their families calling across empty landscapes. I would tip my hat to the man in the stadium, and he would semaphore his distress. I would rush to his side if he needed assistance. I travelltrl . My courtesy protected me, I slept guarded by impeccable dreams, sleep restored the fibres of my nerves. Yet the skies had not always been so far off, they had covered the lands, their rumpled surfaces puckering up to touch. Then stadiums hoisted their girders up with machines, entertainment feted the skies. Goods-yards goods-trains and moving vans divided the dotted lines between A and B. The vaults were positioned and there they remained. The Solnd State SO U T H CH I N A SE:A Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 29 HESITANCY Lest we e\aborate Two figures move forward in silence, eyes closed. These must be the cortizone twins. The priest follows them and stares beyond them into the eyes of the woman to whom they pray. Is she an imposter? Now the priest has closed his eyes, so he too must be attending to his devotions. They all cross the floors of the church, the entire surface littered with unexplained images. All along the road the markers are turned upside down. A dangerous driver has careered down here and done this, and the locksmith is on his trail. It is a high speed chase through the cemetery. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 30 SOUND Before us was a high room, set in with arched windows and still air. Any though turned down the levels of the mind. Wooden bannisters long pews a strip of red carpet green shuttered glass, the shape of her body sideways with the mannikins of her hips, a blue delph material with the studs of buttons. The female presence descending with the levels of night. Apertures pass and sway, and peeping toms take their turn to stud the sky Constellations of coins pave their way to wealth, from where they are unlikely to return. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 31 THE GALLOWS MACHINE Black blood and bright eyes , a strange head is close by a pumping heart. The surface seems to buckle from the heat. Overhead shadows lean closer. It beoomes obvious that the surfaces are smouldering and buckling from the heat, at the edges they blacken and flames appear. Across a desolate landscape where strange machines are littered the light is altered, renewed. the heart is filled with memories, the head is stormed by desires, they combine in a fonn of new psychology. They neglect their health and it strikes back, confusing them with other issues. A ~ Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 32 AGREEMENT Where steps lead up to the sky. The woman is passionate in asking. This is the life she leads. The next best man is leading the life he leads, staring down to the side. They have no interest in one another. They long to walk in the city where the dark vapours conceal them. Acupuncture nightmares disturb their sleep. Swollen figures stalk and turn, obelisks are placed in their way and the procession is diverted by Cleopatra. They are forced back to her rooms, to ask for shelter, to promise obedience. Windows open and shut and their eyes stare out onto open distances, dangerous zones are repeatedly outlined, warnings are ignored, they walk without concern, their brave heart s sounding to whole orchestras of purpose. They simply desire to complete there mapping of the dangerous zones and so walk safely elsewhere. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 33 THE GATES ideas give up The sky is lowered and the ground is raised so that they blot each other out, and the horizon is brought up some more notches to fill the background. The smaller townhouses that the characters live in are taken over by the television crews. It is Oeopatra's infatuation with television that has caused this. Her handmaidens, their hands swollen and dark red, gather flowers in the gardens that overlook the river. They will take barrowloads of the flowers down to the cellars and the bees that work in the dark down there will remove the nectar by stealth. The bees will later be processed by mirrors and then by glass. They will be fixed in glass and will consider themselves invulnerable, heat resistant, and immortal. Beyond the gates the trees have significant and strange shapes, and cast these shapes in shadow onto carpets of white sand. All those present are either innocent or in despair. There is no middleground, except for those that are merely numbed by the sight of doors that have opened onto their kingdom. The kings are kept under shelter, in the back room, in the cellar, out oftheway somewhere. The rest are in the open. Is it possible they may be trying to sidetrack the issue with their innocuous stares? Unlikely. The significant shapes of the ~s are telling and indicate sincerity. The citizens of this area would walk if they could. They are forced to obey the principles of each distracted moment, and in all their cases this involves immobility. Even the statues are no more silent that the men and women, their hands strategically placed. Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 34 ELEVEN BELLS WITHIN Soft curtains, evening may or may not draw near, and glittering threads cross to pin point the stars, the heads, all made from one head in response to the image, are counted down, notches scored into the wet cement. Versatile kaleidoscope magicians drink until the day is dead, killed off by the most mature of those who protect the innocent. Insecure to be or not to be babies whirl down through layers of fire and distance, their despair, once opalescent, now deadened. No fluids will challenge the intoJerab ~e dreams·. ~ v,; I I I I ~ow the picture if. being str-etched Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 35 Negative Thinking, Second Edition, revised and expanded Off-Whyte Press December 2015 first published Planet Press Brisbane 1978 ISBN 0 908 193 02 5 36