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'losing the slums' by Pascalle Burton | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two

by
States of Poetry Queensland - Series Two

'losing the slums' by Pascalle Burton | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two

by
States of Poetry Queensland - Series Two

after the Saint Louis University Mental Status (SLUMS) Examination

at midpoint I take a call from work – don’t want to, though
all jobs are made up anyway and I’m not in today

the first year without Hansie:
look at the state we’re in

if two dots tie two lines together
is meaning made?

things are not important – I will tell you again
you ask me for things, sell me things, I buy the things
things piled on top of things

last December I bought $100 of groceries a week for four weeks
in a bid to collect 10,000 frequent flyer points
the house was full of cleaning products, sanitary pads and olive oil

it hurts to remember the empty cupboards
the echo of hunger and myopic options
the knock of socket wrench on broken starter motor
who can afford 3-for-the-price-of-2 when you can’t afford 1?

or was it five weeks?

now: waving from the leftover horizon

pinky houdini gamzl petrankrum pigsley brutus leah ninny mrs grey bernard zowie katze kuh

a pile of things on top of things

the spurious correlations

two lines = two dots :
             = total revenue generated by arcades : computer science doctorates awarded in the US
             = per capita cheese consumption : people who died tangled in bedsheets

what can it all mean?
what does a clock face?

I have a memory of Charlie Cheese’s Pizza Playhouse, bashing the whack-a-mole
but I’m not so sure that happened – maybe I just saw the ad
= cheese : arcade

last weekend I tried to recall a story about Kanye West at the zoo
I mixed it up with that time my cousin Leisha met Snoop Dogg
= rapper : zoo

a few weeks ago I forgot the word for ‘latitude’
even though I know that latitude is flatitude – I still had to check

oh! shebah and sneakers and the little patchy one ... what WAS their name?

Pascalle Burton

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