From A Second Storey Outhouse

I keep an eagle eye
but not much happens
on this street
it’s too steep
even the door to door
sales people avoid it.

Once a young and beautiful
Jehovah Witness
knocked on my door
wearing a dress
patterned with sky
and sea images
and asked me tenderly
if I wanted
my life saved.

Another time
a teenager
strolling by
exuberantly exclaimed
that whenever
she sees the flowers
out the front of my house
she smiles uncontrollably.

‘The world needs more
flowers’, I tell her purposefully.

Meanwhile in New Zealand
Muslim civilians have been massacred
by a right-wing extremist

and the super powers
talk openly once again
about upgrading
and expanding
their nuclear arsenals
not comfortable enough
with obliterating all life on Earth
a hundred times over

and here
in this weak and pandering nation

the bigwigs threaten again
the collapse of the markets
if more concessions
aren’t handed to the rich
to uproot that last piece
of nature on the fringe

near the privatised h/way, childcare centre
airport terminal, poles and wires, shooting range.

George Douglas Anderson grew up in Montreal and migrated to Australia in his early 20s. He is long-term blogger at BOLD MONKEY. Recent or forthcoming chapbooks include Teaching My Computer Irony (Punk Chapbook Series Epic Rites Press), Shark in the Shallows (Analogue Submission Press) and Fuckwits & Angels (Holy & Intoxicated Publications). Read other articles by George Douglas.