for J-F, January 1987
Toxic, the club where we met, rundown now
Rundown then, the johns sequined with beer, dim
Crush of moon-flesh dancing, the strobe’s freeze-frame
History painting a stock animation
Mirror balls, matches, condoms, sweat-raw limbs
Shedding shirts, shedding disco; shrill amyl
Nitrate; Doc Martens; plucked or pierced eyebrows
Ripped chinos zigzagging tans; shyness shunned
Sherry your cheeky decanted ploy to haul
Me home to fortify us both, pouring
Dryly from our clothes after scorching cold
Flamed our skin, run-from din making you bold
Air smokeless, one candle lit, till you wore
Me out and down, our legs dawn-slaked and sprawled.
John Barton is the current Poet Laureate of Victoria. His new collection of poems, Lost Family: A Memoir, is forthcoming from Véhicule Press this fall.
