Kindness and the mask of kindness are the same:
a kindly man, with blue
irony and kindness. Ashbery days
with the wrong kinds of changes
a kind of translucence
a kind of moon
The city is a kind of hospice.
The people are hard-eyed, kindly, with nothing inside them,
Each message is a kind of poem,
Thought is all sadness; but night is all kindness: the stars are on high.
What kind of father are you
Why do I turn from the honey of life to the blood-kindling wine?
What kind of creature
What kind of weather is risk?
‘from Nonets’ is a cento from MTC Cronin’s ‘LXIV [Your faded clothes flutter like a flag]’, David Malouf’s ‘Epitaph for a Monster of Our Times’, Robert Adamson’s ‘The Flow-Through’, Lee Cataldi’s ‘the simple past’, Jill Jones’ ‘Edge/Past’, joanne burns’ ‘[at 8 a.m.]’, Geoff Page’s ‘The Hospice’, James McAuley’s ‘Envoi’, Geoff Page’s ‘The Lonely Phone’, J Brunton Stephens’ ‘Convict Once’, John Kinsella’s ‘Circus’, Dorothy Porter’s ‘Cold (1)’, Philip Salom’s ‘Two Kinds of Weather’
Read the rest of Overland 229
If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue
