David Prater (Australia): Two Poems
STARS IN HIS HEART
c. David Prater 2007
he was the star
that floated in water, lacking
space (& she was an astronomer
in hawaii
lower case
(she’s the satellite’s document of a
dreamy eclipse (he’s like a word
once lost, now
formed by her
lips (when she says goodbye – oh!
that word & all the stars go out
(& it gets dark:
he drives
through the night with just a radio &
his doubt (the elegant simplicity of
life & her,
of their
separation (caused snows from november
to fall across the nation (never
does, we never
knew that the
stars could dream (the reflection
we’ll never see; the white flakes’
mist a panic
beam (that
lonely message across a face we call
the skies (cry or close your eyes
(i am a child
AMERIKA
He was a jealous
husband without a wife.
I needed security and he gave me
bullets
to rain down
upon those discreet affairs
(which came, and passed. We settled
in
to our familiar
routine: me with my cats
and he out stalking prey. At night
he’d
return with
greenbacks in his ochre eye,
demanding fidelity, abstract truth
and an
Amerikan way of
life. I don’t understand
how it came to this. I trusted him
with
my life savings.
He didn’t believe in ‘me’.
I see it now (with the clarity of
sight
denied the
blind. I sign divorce papers.
Mistrust could not
(a
coalition make.
c. David Prater 2007
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