Wayne Scheggia

 

 

Walking Through Mud

exhausted

you’re walking through mud

knee deep in the sludge of mid-life

if you go under

you wont come back up

 

stuck

like an ant in tree sap

engulfed by the slow moving tide

 

of inevitability

 

of reality

 

of forty-something

 

heavy

anchored with life’s burdens

manacled to your ankles

vacuumed to the spot

misery sucks

 

but you’re not alone

we’ve all got mud on our shoes

 

 

Melbourne Weather

I’m on my guard

in case today’s another day

of rotating seasons

she shifts and changes

quicker than the Melbourne weather

 

Spring in the morning

hot Summer lunchtime

like the St.Kilda Road Elms in Autumn

rationality falls away

Winter gathers on the afternoon horizon

 

It moves across her

like a massing storm over Port Phillip Bay

from bright blue

menacing deep green

to the darkest of violent black moods

 

This is how it’s been

for weeks into months

a Luna Park rollercoaster

riding through our lives

on the outside rail

 

I don’t think I can hang on anymore.

 

 

Please Take Away My Mobile Phone

there is a liar attached to my ear

It’s like a lethal weapon in my hand

it gets me into trouble – more than it’s worth

 

it calls my friends of its own volition

pretends that I’m intoxicated to the limit

by some plentiful drug of choice

 

it articulates words that I don’t recall

confesses my likes, loves and not

it gives away my secrets

 

it does this in the early hours

when I’m not around to supervise

when I’m not quite there at all

 

please take away my mobile phone

 

 

 

So Lucky

standing in front of the mirror

dripping wet from the shower

a body beautiful

like a long slender river

she flowed

 

exploring her own perfection

imperfection surfaced

 

a blemish

a lump

a growth

 

for God’s sake call it by its name

 

cancer

 

early detection is crucial

they said

you’re lucky we’ve got it so quickly

they said

 

oh so lucky

we echoed

 

so lucky, they cut off her chest

so lucky, they burned her with radiation

so lucky, they poisoned her with chemo

 

so lucky

 

she doesn’t stand in front of the mirror any more

 

Where Will It End ?

  

So they’ve lined up all the aces,

An unbeatable hand,

These kings of the world,

Not a wise man among them,

Playing for high stakes.

 

Time to cut out the cancer,

And remove the irritation,

It’s a sick kind of medicine,

That creates the disease,

To justify the cure.

 

It’s often been said,

That we despise in others,

What we see in ourselves,

And like a flash from Hiroshima,

The view from Baghdad is blinding.

 

We stand on the brink,

They are calling our bluff,

There’s talk of only one option,

Don’t you see the irony,

In a war to end war ?

 

Ghosts of Vietnam,

The dominoes are falling,

North Korea has shaken off the fleece,

And I wonder where it will all end,

As I tuck my children tightly into bed.

  

Wayne Scheggia

February, 2003