La Fée Verte

(after a line by Apollinaire)

My glass has shattered like a burst of laughter,

pale green light sprinkling rain.

Seasick flowers bloom through the floor

while across the room

lips of a steamy creature fall

agape, her eyes grinning in my direction,

blonde hair awash.

O fey licorice, paregoric

of my second childhood, ease the pain —

take me to the cloudburst

and the gushing of her name.

I can see my reflection

in the blurred Van Gogh to the left

but that’s not the liquidation I seek.

Not even the sugar and ice I spill down

her cleavage can make up for it.

Take me away! What has been seen

cannot be unseen (the cameras will

babble and froth come morn,

hail or shine), so when I’m asked to leave

I stand up and pass out

into the street — heavy-headed tulips

brushing against my shins.

(published in The Australian, 2012)