Les Murray
Refusing Saul's Armour
x times y marks the spot
where my maths hit the wall.
It was all x from there.
In my last school exam
I drew maths on the paper.
Degrees were critique
but my mind was a groover
and a fiver a week
postponed me as a lover:
even more, I feared capture
by the forty hour week.
As critique bullied life
so I read unset books,
slept in buildings and long grass
years before the Haight,
I mean the Haight Ashbury,
while faith, faith and tobacco
kept the Black Dog at bay.
When all turned to hope and blame
was his teeth-baring day,
and our spastic model poet
agile in his narrow flat
showed us his sword collection.
Shame on bellies sucked in:
his stung blades knew their paladin.
Page(s) 40
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