dysfunctional ...

she prefers
magnifying glasses:

she sees things closely really well -
picks me up on errors

too trivial for me
to even bother correcting.

and now,
having learned

a teaspoonful of Marx,
I see it's my turn...

but I prefer binoculars

and believe that I can see things reasonably well
with some distance.

and when she asks me why her boss
is ordering her to cut labels from the garments that she sells

I explain to her
the basics of capitalism

and how it's designed to keep some people
in developed countries rich-rich

and the rest of the world
poor-poor.

I explain to her how these garments were
most probably made from slave labour
in Hong Kong

while she then sells them upmarket
for $1000 a piece in her boss's shop
in Australia

and then I explain to her
who really pockets the big buck's.

but
tired of my analysis,

she turns the conversation
onto a different subject.

ticket inspector

in the carriage
I'm listening to him.

talking to his offender
who's twice his age
about having no ticket;

and he's talking

like
the offender is a child
and that 50 years walking on this planet hasn't offered a skerrick of
wisdom,

and like
the world is all new and that this 'child'
has yet to learn right from wrong

and that the truth should always be told
when being asked.

we all know

that this outlook
is how the rich man gets his gargantuan slice,

and how
the likes of Pinochet assume power

and how some countries are developed
while others can't even drown in their own shit -

they would need food
to do that.

^

Biography

Brad Evans was born in Sydney, 1971. He was placed into various educational institutions for twenty years, finally escaping in 1997 when poetry became too influential in his life. Some of his latest poems, articles, interviews, and reviews have been, or will soon be, featured in the following magazines (printed / online) and anthologies: Poetry N.Z. (NZ), Gangway (AUST), Poet Tree (UK), Niederngasse (SWIT), Comrades (UK), The Burning Bush (EIRE), Ixion (UK), Exile (UK), Freefall (US), Crania (UK), Driftnet (UK), Sex, Death & Ronald McDonald (US), The Open Window (CAN), Slacker (UK), Electric Acorn (EIRE), The Scriberazone (UK), Snakeskin Poetry Webzine (UK), La Petit Zine (US), Zine Zone (UK), The Reater (UK), Struggle (US), Centoria (AUST), Lateral Moves (UK), Wonderlust (UK), Poetry DownUnder (AUST), The Animist (AUST), Angel (UK), The Brobdingnagian Times (EIRE), Skald (UK), Breakfast All Day (FR), Konfluence (UK), Paris / Atlantic (FR), Sivullinen (FNLD), Asphyxia (AUST), Quantum Leap (UK), Hobo (AUST), Ygdrasil (CAN), Dancing Barefoot (BELG), Apples & Oranges (US), Hjokfinnies Sanglines (UK), Panic! (UK), Roadworks (UK), Markings (UK), Haggard & Halloo (US), Voices of Liberation (UK), Fire (UK), Manifold (UK), Poetryism (US), Lochs (UK), In Our Own Words (US), Borderlines (UK), Zimmer-zine (UK), Insurgentz (US), Braquemard (UK), Papillon (UK), At Last (UK), Poezine (UK), Big Bridge (UK), Dream Forge (US), Blue Print (UK). Brad's first book of poetry, "and them, and the jackals, and the night", has just been published by Lone AMP Press. Brad is also the founder and editor of Red Lamp, a journal for realist, socialist and humanitarian poetry.