Sport of the future

(based on suggestions from @quadelle, @realnixwilliams, @juliansanelli and @facelikthunder)

I run from the hail with a god, a dog.

Rain on my car is a baptism, the new me.

Inside, a china teapot ready to be made holy.

Slick wooden pencils and cool metal pens

rest easily in the groove of an old tree.

Lick the grey tip, roll the swift metal sphere on my tongue.

Make them write.

No ruler to guide the scrape of colour on paper.

I’ll gauge it true.

I’ve written 65 songs. They’re all about you.

Pull out a cup of cinnamon, smear of chilli. Spread over my words.

There’s minerals there, there’s gold.

Tai chi and chai tea, every move of limb and leaf's a

Sport of the future for the un-coordinated.

Pencil tips carved into a key, a letter ‘F’.

Maybe the world is full of food and sex and spectacle

And we're all just hurling towards an apocalypse

Going to hock our eyeballs to people overseas.

But stop at that letter ‘F’, uncorrected.

Flat shine of graphite against art's blade.

It stands a pen’s height taller than my highest guilt.

If you start out depressed, everything’s kind of a pleasant surprise.

The world is full of guys. Be a man. Don’t be a guy.

Niamh and John Cusack: Beatrix and Lloyd.

A common surname in my day.

If you start out depressed,

you don’t want to sell anything bought or processed

or buy anything sold or processed,

or process anything sold, bought or processed.

You just want to get dressed.

Screw over the strongholds of Satan with the lunatic right

Nuke it. Flame it. Destroy it.

But only in word and mind, only with pencils and pens.

Leave the rest to a rabbit, happily by an empty teapot.

A world of quiet wood and words to grow,

creaking them up fat and strong.

____________________________________________________

Today's poem is based on suggestions from:

• @quadelle: 'pencils and pens'
• @realnixwilliams:'tea! I am drinking cinnamon chilli chai!'
• @juliansanelli: 'Barnaby Joyce!!' (Geez, thanks Julian)
• @facelikethunder 'John Cusack in Say Anything?...#notreally' (oh no, really)

So:

Lines 2, 10, part of 14, 16-17, 22-23, 26-29 are quotations from John Cusack in ‘Say Anything’

Lines 12, 18, 31-32 are quotations from Queensland senator and rampant floor-crosser Barnaby Joyce.

The reference to carved pencil tips is about the art of Dalton Ghetti, who makes amazing sculptures from carving the tips of pencils into miniscule shapes. Truly, if you haven't seen them, have a look right now.

Also, John Cusack's name reminded me of Niamh Cusack, who plays Beatrix Potter in the gorgeous children's tv series. Each episode always begins the same way, and I adore the introduction where she runs through the rain home to a cup of tea, and Peter. So much wub.