Phoebus Apollo, by Jan Boeckhorst, oil on canvas, c.1665. [Wikimedia Commons.]
Dionysia
Our drinking odyssey
started brightly.
A hemisphere of azure
promised and delivered
ice-cold beer.
Cans rained down from heaven.
Alcohol flowed happily.
Phoebus soared
across the afternoon
in his chariot of fire.
Flickering white-clad men
in the magic box beneath the window
battled a red leather ball.
Soon, street lights
– sulphur aureolae
on an indigo evening.
How deep is the night?
No more beer! Time ripe for wine!
With Dionysus we descended
into the Underworld.
Thick-lipped fish
on the bottom of the sea
(or some Nick Cave palaver)
thudded from your stereo.
Madly we set sail
through a Stygian murk
to the local pub.
Flushed faces.
The guy’s a tool!
A three-course meal.
I’ll have the duck.
A ridiculous T-shirt
the publican made you wear
to cover your blue singlet:
I allus ‘ave wan at th’ Pig and Whistle.
Hallucinatory midnight
starry whirly starry
all the way home.
We scrambled in your front window,
scattered nesting CDs,
then blundered to our rooms,
soon fitful in Morpheus’ arms.
In the slatted shafts of the morning sun,
if someone had touched me softly,
I’d have shattered into pieces.
(You looked the same, mon frère.)
Three cups of tea. A cigarette.
Both of us still fragile.
Then the white-clad men again
run about in the magic box…
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws…I’m Feeling Too Indolent, is available HERE
Read more Almanac Poetry HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
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