Les Wicks 
AUSTRALIA


Photo Credit: Susan Adams

Les Wicks  Over 35 years Wicks has performed at festivals, schools, prison etc. Published in well over 200 different magazines, anthologies & newspapers across 15 countries in 9 languages. Conducts workshops around Australia & runs Meuse Press which focuses on poetry outreach projects like poetry on buses & poetry published on the surface of a river. His 8th book of poetry is the Ambrosiacs (Island, 2009)
Les Wicks' books are "The Vanguard Sleeps In" (Glandular, 1981), "Cannibals" (Rochford St, 1985), "Tickle" (Island, 1993), "Nitty Gritty" (Five Islands, 1997), "The Ways of Waves" (Sidewalk, 2000), "Appetites of Light" (Presspress, 2002), "Stories of the Feet" (Five Islands, 2004)  & “The Ambrosiacs” (Island, 2009).
He's performed at festivals, schools, prison etc. Runs workshops across Australia & is editor of Meuse Press which focuses on poetry outreach projects like poetry on buses & poetry published on the surface of a river.

Fires Break Out

 Slippage in a distant city
calloused hand in hand
tides of kisses from
mortal enemies any
chocolate is drugged by slavery makes him
old, impotent & important.
 
Some husband lost his gun just
when streets needed cleansing.
He’ll attempt some

donate to charity

hand out wounds to fill those vacant bandages.
Lit by blood diamonds
this revolution will be as different
as it is overdue.
 
Shooting roses, done from love.
She demonstrates peaceably on a mound of body parts.
Supermarkets let you down, flour power
(price has trebled)
& all that university training has left hordes
desperately waiting tables of time.

From outside the cheers & tuts send
each person’s eyes in search of shelter.
America is a handsome blonde with an axe.
 
Freedom becomes a bleed. Apply pressure,
such nonsense will scab. Rub vigorously
& it disappears. The leaders have read the instructions. Uniforms
like blue moons croon under fingernails,
the social lullalies that fly towards the face.
Clinquant refuse is the pay scale
anything burns
under hungers so clear & difficult.
 
The nicest, nitid days
are on the list.
Had to happen, smartarse prophets
aim low & are always right. Feed rice
to the convertibles. Riot with empty.
 
                              

 

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