water vessel hero

The water vessel Hero

On what foundation stands the warriors pride? What sustains him when the night is dark? What quenches his thirst in the hot desert Sun ripple and death adder dance?

Holy saviour of child melt-down
On Katoomba st winter frost glitter
Or
Overheating engine car radiator bone dry on Roadside ruined and potholed?
On What foundation stands the warriors existence?
What terrors averted?
What dehydration subversions possible in the Intellectual too’s and fro’s
Of
Traditions that hit
Left right and centre?

The water vessel held tight in heroic hand Refilled each night at kitchen tap

at
food-cooperative water sink filter
filled at noon at strangers front yard garden tap
a dreadlocked fugitive
beneath eucalypt filled with crows
or at sacred forest spring seeping from clay fern bank held up
to storm cloud sky dark in radiant human hope the water vessel
by bedside in back pack
or
left overnight in the front seat of unlocked car
there at the new day of waking!
needed
at the call to adventure
sipped
careful at the threshold
shared supernatural in the challenge
or
fallen into the mortal abyss

of
despair and revelation
transformed in the return
the last drops saved to share as sacred offering
to the dirt road goddess ascent
gift of elixir reborn
in the victory
drunk deep against the force of wind and gust obstacles
outside the front gate of suburban heaven hearth fire encountered at return
avatar of futures imagined in the ecologies complex and thriving and stable
needed when loving or fucking
limbs entwined
in the forest or anywhere
needed to water indoor tabletop garden
of succulent and cacti
in the support of friend and lover
thirsty on the way
or witches cat on the driveway tar

or
in the belly of whale or cavern or beneath the
feather blanket morning time darkness
and
underworld temptress
of cognitive labyrinth and maze
genetic hydration of future generations
and
fallen fathers
a crumbling patriarch and feminist fertility atoned or stoned in the kitchen time
dish- rack or dinner made on the table
a solitary desire
of
government zombie apocalypse collapse instrument of anarchy and freedom
with squatters in abandoned sandstone mansion facing police over the barricades
of nation-state flag
sewn into bikini or undies or tea-towel burning

in the cure of illness the

delight of fluid regeneration
of
cosmic cell hydration
in the bubble and hiss of social change
a subverted empire of imagined barren rival blockheads

tackled by a brick with eyes
thrown through shop window or at the gates of empty graffiti’d church
vain nervous anxious
ready to walk
out
front screen door beneath red brick arch
down wood step and creek
onto
crystal shard ghost seed footpath
The water vessel historic and ancient
present since the dawn of fire and ash and smoke
clay round mythic carved

with spout or jewel polished lid wide narrow brass or glass spiritual in copper beaten shape shiny

modern black soot cauldron or
seashell spiral for ceremony or

leather sewed with animal hide chewed earthen ornament with strap or curved lid leashed
fashioned in specific design

from earth animal hide tailings ponds industrial thrown away discarded in gutter or sophisticated?

marked by gods ancient or
branded multi-national profit

margin and neo-liberal

mined earth mover and

by road-side

and profound

corporate

market myth

the phallic polished red mahogany hollow strung with rope
knotted and woven
druid stone spiral carved

Crosshatched thick spout
on Paris museum stand behind glass
with
security guards and camera and alarm
or
carried in rainbow crotched bag from Nimbin a relic of kombi or Nissan pop-top and white-ant eaten
caravan graveyard
The water vessel bottle!
blue scratched enamel with smiling Buddha printed
etched in the departure
in the initiation descent and return
dented in the call and task
of the warriors pride
traversed
in

the unknown mysterys of self in crisis forced to the ground in the ordeals
of
destruction

emptied of all
a
hollow vessel abandoned
in
friends home
returned after poem written refilled for hero with elixir of rainwater
caught from mountain
house roof
in
44 gallon black plastic drum!

+ For Gary Caganof Katoomba late Autumn 2015