Title: Sport 36

Publication details: Fergus Barrowman, 2008

Part of: Sport

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Sport 36: Winter 2008

Johanna Aitchison

page 139

Johanna Aitchison

didymo

do not enter the water do not drink the water if you drink the water do a drinking free of water dance do not touch the water if you touch the water with a stick wash the stick in a solution of one part dishwashing liquid to 19 parts tap water do not think about the water unless you have washed first

*

do not write about the stream lapping at your stream do not lap stream do not walk too close in case an unlucky tourist in good shape—perhaps from germany called ingrid—pushes you in do not let the weed grow in your mouth and spit it into another waterway

*

if you swim in the water but not naked make sure that you wash your mouth and your swimming togs in saline solution

*

do not enter the stream do not think about how cool the stream would be on your legs do not muse on how the word bounces along your tongue

but what about dreaming you ask the doc ranger am i allowed to dream but what if in my dream the man in the didymo is the largest i have ever seen what if for instance ranger he is say 105 kg of solid muscle and i can ask him things like how many didymos have you killed and was it good for didymo?

page 140

wherever i am, where are you?

1

road sign says desert road open caution high winds the colonel complains the algebra problems are too easy the kids are fingerpainting farewells on toilet walls you're hauling out your voice and throwing it against the chairs when the second lieutenant comes he stops short at your collarbones, 'i thought they broke a whole carton of eggs,' he says, 'do you mean to say you got me down here for nothing?'

2

tied-together fifteen-year-old girls start resuscitation attempts at dreams the psychiatrist came she laughs, 'a man, holding a needle!' she throws backpacks in the valley of horses yells 'mum!' to an empty kitchen warm glove water plunge stuntwoman lost her baby found a poplar at the bonnet edge sarah died doing CPR on a man lost to heart attacks rain lacks promise to crouch for men whose faces shout at you in short claps i'll wait for them swinging rope against backdrops so black they'll have to name it a new colour

3

'the woman who found us thought we were no longer alive' alive i want to get up with flies come on baby hand over your body this is one from which you shall never recover laugh if you want to but i'll find out your kids squirt maggots in their sandwiches the lesson today is your daddy is a rapist for homework find his face write in it spit into his pupils look straight wee boy two a little older than you & female whom he stopped to abort that sweet english countryside spring-summer day

page 141

the rain that falls, here comes

1

haven't you heard the rumours she says it is so dark that you can only imagine the blood clot spots of pohutukawa along the waterfront clumps of fine moonlight shining on the sea built for lovers i walked you with my fist you took off my top caressed my breast so beautiful you said yes

2

i let him have something for rachel for something to be rachel says the mother she was naïve she was trusting she had the lock on the door for her own safety she loved the safe door she was already dead and he was on top of her still stabbing her body

3

if i can't have you i don't want anyone else to baby he's singing into his knife (you see the picture he looks like normal!) our tongues met he said he loved me chased me with a knife down the room i have something for rachel he says to the mother