Joachim Matschoss – The Actor

Profile Joachim Matschoss LE P&W Oct 2019

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The Actor, new poems by Joachim Matschoss

Joachim Matschoss was born in Germany and now lives in Melbourne/Australia. He is a playwright, poet and Theatre-maker. His Theatre Company, ‘Backyard Theatre Ensemble (BYTE)’ presents diverse pieces of theatre all across Melbourne/ Australia and internationally, both Youth Arts and for adults. Joachim has created theatre in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, India, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Taiwan, Switzerland and China. Joachim’s poetry is published in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom and the USA. Joachim’s latest book, Rain Overnight: Travels in Asia, is available directly from him or from good bookshops in Melbourne and on Amazon.


man eating chicken

he stares ahead
illuminated by changing traffic lights
a face scarred by the day’s events
the sound of his teeth against bone
pulling and pulling
in search for lukewarm flesh
he’s eating alone in this strange city
the footpath still wet from a recent downpour
he throws lightly browned skin away
pigeons in a flurry descend
as he now sucks the bone
flights over cartilage and knuckle
he’ll eat until he’s done
with the piece of chicken
with the day
with life


woman gambles in munich

the smokers’ haze around her
wafting in thinly from outside
exhaled by tired lungs
the pub’s door kept ajar by a cold draft
fierce and uncompromising
winter doesn’t much round here
she’s forty but it’s hard to tell
hasn’t washed her hair for days
drinking beer quietly and throwing coins
in endless succession into the wet slits of horny machines
sexed up, swallowing euro after euro
three fat red hearts make her straighten up
in anticipation of a downpour of money
but all she’ll get is a free game
a quick smoke only to return to chase new luck
soon, very soon, bills, coins, dreams will vanish –

some blocks away, someone looks after a newborn
that longs for the skin of her mother


stefan

we’ve been in the same film, you and I
set in suburban streets all over germany
we’ve heard the same doorbells
touched the same towels
smelled and tasted the same food
we’ve heard the same voices in the room next to us –
but somehow, we had two childhoods
mine was a dream
was yours a nightmare?
life went on, unedited
you lived yours in the coldness of a room I don’t remember
the wall in your head had my name on it
sprayed with the echoes of tears
with age I think about you more than ever
your shock of blonde hair
and a head full of gifts and generosity
and a smile that would light a city


the actor

her hair has a deliberate messiness
lipstick colour bohemian
she talks, likes talking –
the difference between actions and habits
is often measured by – she stops
strikes me being scattered
like electricity in rural ukraine
chemicals make me sick, she says
one bump, one line, half a gram
jesus was addicted for sure
the part, the role
right now, it’s a stretch, but hey
push the limits, go past the past
her eyes quiver
as if they’d be swerving lanes on the autobahn
I wanna melt with my characters
like let our souls collide
dissolve the boundaries –
at some point I ask a question
about life
her life
real life

she smiles
look at life, wink and start laughing


© Joachim Matschoss