Nickleus’ disturbing cello chords lent themselves to a poem I wrote called ‘pokies at the emu’ (pokies are poker machines in Australia & the Emu Hotel is an Adelaide pub. I retitled it to make it more universal.)


pokies at the emu / gambling addiction


CREDIT BET WIN

you enter the opulence a winner

carpets are soft faces hard
gold scintillates under halogen
smoke in coils frittered ceilingward
extracted from your pockets
of air
to a reflective vault

All smoke and mirrors.
cigarette butts are twisted polio legs
writhing in their own ash
joyful rising cadences overflow electronic calliopes
in the Key of Triumph Major
winning forte
(the crash of cash)
losing pianissimo

envious eyes dart sideways at lucky bastards
the coffee is free
but you’re detained

a Wild Thing with Mystic Power, an Aristocrat in a world beyond day beyond night
beyond spouse beyond your Home and kids
it seems, beyond The World


But at dream’s wakening you must return to
Debt Lies Guilt
your life a spinning chocolate wheel
past the glass case of prizes
step out into the poverty
of carpark darkness

and the silent
desperation
of loss


© rob walker (from the collection micromacro, 2006)