I love the whole world
          she said,
  without sounding
   corporate

           (Agnes Martin
                          said it)

I love arctic phlox
   but
     have never seen it

                      *

a bit 'light'
on equipment –
        a T-square
        & a tape measure

      might need extra
                   for researching

                to avoid
              grains of salt

                         *

(an ascription)
               Agnes Martin
               was a lesbian

tho
she often
denied it

                  wonder
                  how her lovers
                  took that?

             *

&, now,
a new question

               it's
               for Moe Tucker

(Velvets drummer)

why why
      the Tea Party?

furious
about the way
we're being led
towards socialism

                    (Moe Tucker
                               said it)

no no no Moe
'we're' not
       &
       that's the trouble

politics though
can happen
       ominously,
with what
between
       the rich & the socialites
       & technology

           couldn't play
            a perfect roll
for a million dollars

moody

cymbals
never mattered

                      *

Agnes Martin,
              had she lived
              long long long,
 might have been
      Tea Party

her capable paintings
put me
to sleep
            (reproduction only)

making a map
      of hints
      & clues

you'll never know
    what
abstraction
    is
          unless
          you ask
          the women

                 *

I dream another grid

Pam Brown

she used to walk out to the road at the end of town, put her arms and legs up to the sky and stretch out to reach all of the stars. the next summer it seemed like she would never have the chance to do it again, because of the locusts. everywhere in the town there were dead locusts covering the roads. locusts met their deaths on windscreens of cars and meshed inextricably into the grates of the trucks on the highway. the people in town stayed indoors most of the time because you could not go outside without breathing in or stepping on a locust. elderly people raised their eyebrows at the young as if they were receiving their penance. the middle-aged accepted the locusts as another weary feature of their lives. the young checked the weather on their phones and knew there was a 80% chance a rain storm would come and wash the locust carcasses away by next thursday.

Susie Anderson

Recording

at the patisserie the waitresses speak in French to each other while they slowly put in your coffee order. they do not seem rushed and their dialogue makes the experience seem authentic. I did not have cash and asked if they had a minimum on card. it was $10 and I had to add a chocolate truffle to my order to meet the price. I laughed to deflect attention from getting chocolate in the morning and said it would be my afternoon snack. I was lying. I planned to eat it well before lunch on the way back to my building so no one I work with would know. on my way back I realised that no one actually speaks to each other at the office. so I could eat what I want or sit and write the whole experience down in my notebook at my desk and no one would notice.

Susie Anderson

Recording

I am always on the edge of being careless. if I am leaving a table at a bar, for example, people always remind me to pick up my phone or my wallet as opposed to forgetting it. it is kind that people care to remind me. leaving the bus I didn't have enough time to do my checklist, which involves locating important items like my Opal card, wallet and phone. after I got off I knew I didn't have my Opal card. I looked fervently through all my bags anyway. I took out my wallet and my phone and my diary and shook my books by the spine to loosen the pages. my efforts only revealed a lack. it's an old habit to cling and lament things that are lost, but I suspect that habit also drove off on the bus along Military road. I am surprised at my ability of letting go.

Susie Anderson

Recording