June Call-Back-Poet: Michael Cohen

Last month, Michael Cohen was ‘Called-Back’ after reading his brilliant homage to the humble sausage roll… So make sure you get along to the gig this Saturday, July 7 – Brew, Lower Burnett Lane, The City from 2pm – 5:30pm – and hit the mic for your chance to be named Call-Back-Poet of the month. All Call-Back-Poets will perform at the final SpeedPoets event of the year in November where one will be named, SpeedPoets Open Mic Champion of 2012. It could be you!!!

Now over to Michael’s poem in all its pastry covered glory…

*****

title – the last temptation of crust (the word title is in the title and so is this)

one
3 a.m.
a servo in chinchilla
you order the last
sausage roll

two
what existed before time?
can a frog feel sheepish?
what is the flavour
of a sausage roll?

three
you wipe steam from the counter
to reveal a lentil pie a chiko roll
and three sausage rolls

four
the bus costs 2.90

in school that bought you
a small flavoured milk
and a sausage roll

1.70 for the milk
1.20 for the sausage roll

five
split open
steam rises from the soft
naanlike inner layer
of the sausage roll

six
on your first date
she only eats the pastry shell
of the sausage roll

seven
the sausage roll is a metamorphosis
of meat and wheat and heat

of meat and wheat and heat
to our whiteboned
bloodorganed inner body

eight
does god exist?

if he made us
did he also make
sausage rolls?

nine
in a woollen doona
a knitted sweater
and five toed socks
you wrap yourself
like a sausage roll

ten
hey ref you farken blind?

with one bite he eats a quarter
of a sausage roll

eleven
beside a bin
the crumpled wrapper
of a sausage roll

the goanna does not think
it is an egg

twelve
this smells like
but is not
a sausage roll

thirteen
gathering flakes of pastry
from the crevice of your front seat
you try to remember
the last time you ate
a sausage roll

*****

By day, Michael Cohen is a computer-y guy who does computer-y stuff on computers. By night, he is a sad and lonely misanthrope who plays scratch’n'sniff with the universe. His collected flakes are available at wordporridge.tumblr.com