Mark Young
Iron Lion Zion
A modern-day Rastafarian chariot
crosses my bow in the shopping
center carpark. The driver has
dreadlocks on show flowing from
beneath his tricolor beanie. The
car's upholstery is in the same
colors. A dozen or so small rasta
dolls populate the lower dash,crenellate the bottom of the wind-
screen. Such decorative endeavour
is to be admired: but at the same time
I am thinking that if Jah lives, it prob-
ably would be somewhere else than
this ass-end-of-the-universe town.
Signature dishes
One & a half hours in the
ophthalmologist’s waiting
room; & the time taken up
with a corner of the eye
continuity of cooking shows
playing on the TV suspended
in a corner of the room. Half
an hour of Beef Wellington.
Now I’m being shown howto make couscous. Discover
there’s nothing to it, if you
ignore the need for a trip to
Morocco, the pre-requisite of
a truckload of smem — the local
fermented butter — & a variety
of spices that most countries
wouldn’t even contemplate
issuing an import permit for.
A line from Freddie Mercury
Epic coastlines, cobbled streets —
it should have been an easy gig. In-
stead were met by those sinuous
curves in the local river turnedover & into bicycle lanes. Now it's
a theatrical event based on some
random combination of political
trust, forensic geography, & a pro-posed lower age limit for sexual con-
sent. Contained by a dashed line with
chevrons that not even the greatest
hook in the world can make attractive.
Mark Young was born in Aotearoa / New Zealand but now lives in a small town in North Queensland in Australia. He has been publishing poetry for over sixty years, & is the author of around sixty books, primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction, vispo, non-fiction, & art history. His most recent books are Songs to Come for the Salamander: Poems 2013-2021, selected & with an introduction by Thomas Fink (Meritage Press & Sandy Press); Your order is now equipped for shipping (Sandy Press); & The Advantages of Cable (Luna Bisonte Prods).