Citizen Malfunction

By Stanley Gray

Citizen Malfunction is a book of over 250 selected poems - the distillation of 34 years of Stanley’s often pugnacious life - taken from a number of unpublished collections, including Chaos Junction, Ten Poems of Destruction and Catalog.

These poems cover a great deal of awkward territory at a dizzying pace: from blasting off at the launch pad of bedsit blues, soaring through pain and loss and all stops in between. Oh, and he manages to stick one on an imaginary sky wizard!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Sep 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781925353631

Stanley Gray

Stanley Gray, although a true man o’ Kent, lives and writes in the Blue Mountains ...

Book preview

Citizen Malfunction

Selected poems 1981 – 2015

Stanley Gray

This is an IndieMosh book

brought to you by MoshPit Publishing

an imprint of Mosher’s Business Support Pty Ltd

PO BOX 147

Hazelbrook NSW 2779

http://www.indiemosh.com.au/

Copyright 2015 © Stanley Gray

All rights reserved

Cover image © Stanley Gray

Licence Notes

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No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the author and publisher.

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

For my Love and Muse,

Kerry Hennessy

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. E. Else and Mr Gary Bassett for their inspiration and belief in me. Thank you, gentlemen.

Also, I give thanks and utmost respect to the Gundungurra people, on whose ancestral lands I reside.

Preface

'You write poetry? Are you crazy?'

What kind of crazy do you want? Or rather, I should ask what sort of crazy do you expect?

I have, for most of my life, been told there was something not quite right about me and that I would never make it in the world. So, I decided to stop listening and do what I wanted to do anyway.

I began writing poetry at the age of eight. And kept going.

This selection, taken from the last 34 years, is set out alphabetically rather than chronologically: it rather sums up the organised chaos that is me. Crazy eh!?

00:23

This hour,

I am far away.

Beyond

Time,

I drift…

Across the swept red

Alien land,

The wind blows your name,

Shouting

 Silently…

My princess,

My muse,

My love…

I feel the cold rain

Of tears

And waiting days…

I am bone deep

In solitude.

This hour

I am so far

From you,

Tasting the day…

I need you,

I feel you

Across this desert

Of loneliness

Where others believe

I do not exist…

Will they ever know my fears?

Will they ever show love?

This hour,

I am away...

23 Chromosomes

Strip.

Stroke.

Come.

And go.

Twenty three

From me.

2:00am Big One

And here it is!

The 2:00am big one,

Blasted.

Blazing a cosmic trail

For all (or none)

To see.

Bonfires of the mind

Catch light and clear

A path

For all (or some)

Set free.

1976

A hot haze, all summer long,

Always within me,

Still going strong.

We met in September,

Forged an unbroken bond.

Love is forever,

In my heart, and beyond.

A Big Fuck Off Penny

Not quite a fist slamming into my face

But a big fuck off penny dropped,

Resounding, profoundly,

In the space between my ears

As I flash the rotten tombstones

Of my special Cheshire grin.

My sugared skull is spinning once again!

I have landed on my tail this time, not my head.

Acme Anvil

Just think of the dollars, she said,

As I look up, expecting the obligatory Acme anvil

To come whistling down - crunch!

Now wouldn't that be funny!?

I was trying to explain the need to escape

Through drink