Live Encounters Poetry & Writing, Special Edition on Humour June 2024.
Put on a fresh shirt to bid at the auction, poem by Kit Kelen.
Put on a fresh shirt to bid at the auction
how many beans in the jar?
adrenalin pumps
make up numbers no one’s heard before
will never hear again
it’s something and one
said just for fun
oh and oh for the dice’ next throw
the script has
termites
no kitchen
falling walls
plumbing never quite paid for
who’ll meet me at 643?
do we get in the door at 644?
if the increment fits
and starts
do I hold up
how many paws, paddles?
why can’t we live together?
wasn’t that soul?
count backwards
that will get ’em riled
play for the zero sum
and where it trends nobody knows
egg on
with confidence and zeal
this beast
like a magic bean graph
will reach the heavens yet
mind of the hive says something and five,
be breathless
don’t wait
a next fresh number ends in nine
fresh paint and the multitude sins
will this hovel yet be mine?
so solemn po
the auctioneer
all the good ones go to heaven
all our sixes now are seven
like in the waiting room
and everyone wants the job
so we interview each other
still not too late at eighty eight
who has the baton?
you say bingo
once twice
three times the spell
that hammer is only my heart
© Kit Kelen
Kit Kelen is Australia’s most consistently persistent minor poet. Find him every day at https://thedailykitkelen.blogspot.com/