An audio poem, produced by myself:
Going Down With The Ship - poetry by shaun patrick green.
Your eyes don't deceive you, matey... This ship is going down... The wicked bob like stopping corks... While the good all sink and drown.
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Friday, April 18, 2025
Radiation
If this is love,
Then the soft things are missing,
The comfort, the ease of being
Together, the enjoyment of a
Sunset without alcohol?
If this is love,
Why do we hide in the dark,
Praying to the god of boxed wine,
Fearing neighbours sifting our rubbish,
Finding our empties violate protocol?
If this is love,
Why are you pissed as a pirate
And swearing like a wharfie
By the time I have to read
Our daughter her bedtime story?
If this is love,
Why are your parents
Staging an intervention
When I thought I could save you
And provide protection?
If this is love,
Then love is an inflammation,
Which, with antibiotics and time,
Will diminish slowly,
Like radiation.
©Shaun Green 2025
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
The Winds Of Change.
I felt the winds of change in 1989,
When the Berlin Wall came down.
I was 19 years old and it felt like Freedom was all around.
I could feel the winds of change blowing
When John Howard announced the gun
Buy-Back scheme after
The Port Arthur Massacre.
I heard the winds of change screaming
When John Howard was defeated by
Kevin Rudd in 2007, after
11 years of conservative oblivion.
I basked in the winds of change
When Julia Guillard became our first
Female Prime Minister and schooled
Tony Abbott on misogyny.
I sailed on the winds of change
When Barrack Obama became the first
Black man to be elected president of
The United States of America.
I tasted the winds of change
When Scott Morrison lost to Albanese
And people on welfare would finally
Be allowed their dignity.
I marvelled at the winds of change
When women marched on mass
To Parliament House, calling for an end
To Domestic Violence.
I no longer feel the winds of change
Making my skin prickle,
Pushing the blood a little faster
Through my veins.
Change has been promised
Too many times and never arrived,
Leaving me unable to rebuild hope
From the rubble of what remains.
©Shaun Green 2024
Hold Tight.
Hold tight
Hold tight to love
Hold tight
Hold tight to freedom
Hold tight
Hold tight to hope
Hold tight
Hold tight to ideas
Hold tight
Hold tight to friends
Hold tight
Hold tight to history
Hold tight
Hold tight to democracy
Hold tight
But not too tight
Because if you hold too tight
To love it becomes hate
And if you hold too tight
To freedom it becomes fanaticism
Hold too tight to hope
It becomes delusion
Hold too tight to ideas
They become ideology
Hold too tight to friends
They become enemies
Hold too tight to history
And it becomes HIS story
Hold too tight to democracy
It becomes fascism
So hold tight
Hold tight…
But not too tight
©Shaun Green 2024
Saturday, January 13, 2024
Is Anybody Asking The Narcissists: Are You OK?
It’s a thankless task,
Trawling the narcissists
To see if they’re Ok.
Sometimes we see
Someone’s Facebook page
Drop to less than three posts a day.
That’s when we know we need to act,
To add a smiley face, love heart,
Or like so they can go their way
Through their day,
Solid in the knowledge
That the world has got their back
And cares about the lack
Of attention the waiter paid
To the water level
In their dog’s bowl
Or the level of froth
On their child’s
Bambichino, because, you know,
These things matter!
Like zucchini flowers in batter!
If your go to café doesn’t
Serve them right,
Then a war crimes trial
Is pending.
So what else is trending?
Beauty tips for ugly people,
Super diets for fat people,
Plastic surgery tips,
Chick pea and lemon dips,
Hot bods doing workouts,
Feeling the burn in those quads,
Lats and abs as they crush
Those crunches and run 50 laps.
Thumbs up, clapping hands,
Love hearts💖💖💖💖
We have to keep them loving themselves,
Because without them,
The internet would just be a desert,
Populated by interesting people
Who just want to talk to each other.
And that is not a business plan
Anyone can sell.
©Shaun Green 2024
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Weak Spot.
We all have a weak spot,
That’s what he said.
Didn’t know what he meant.
Was he talking about mortality
Or a more fundamental reality,
Where toxins in food, air and water
Find binding points in bodies
To cause corpuscles to coalesce
Into cancers,
Like the nitrates in my ham sandwich
Seeking a soft point in my bowel
To mutate cells and truly become
A pain in my arse?
We all have a weak spot,
That’s what he said.
But was he referring to a chink
In the armour that makes you think
You can be calmer when your life
Is out of control,
Drinking too much,
Running your mouth off,
Acting like a dick when you swore
To yourself that was the last thing
You would ever be...
Again.
We all have a weak spot,
That’s what he said.
And I checked my shit:
Love, life, relationships,
Looking for a loophole
Where a DNA sized mole might,
Out of pure spite,
Sink its teeth into the meat of me,
Ripping out emotions
That pour in oceans incarnadine,
While I run around frantic,
Finger at the ready,
Looking for holes to plug
To stop the Atlantic.
We all have a weak spot,
That’s what he said.
And if we’re not dead then life
Hasn’t found it...
Yet.
©Shaun Green 2023
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Free Range Children.
To the tech school, did monos,
Pissed in doorways, played cricket
As if no one was watching.
Our parents certainly weren’t.
It was the 80s, well before
Paedophiles, rapists, killers,
Although Chopper was in jail
Just down the road.
But he was a good guy, misunderstood:
He only targeted crims,
The earless long arm of the law,
Taking it easy in Jika Jika
While the guards fed him
Cigarettes and porn.
Now that I think about it,
My parents were taking a gamble.
Either they thought the world was safe
Or they didn’t give a shit.
They were thrust into responsibility
Too early and decided
It was not for them:
Dad wanting to be a rockstar,
Mum wanting to be a groupie,
So children were an afterthought…
Like handbags or shoes or that first
Dire Straights album (you know the one,
before they were famous?).
In the 80’s, children were accessories:
Easily lost, rarely found,
But delivered back with a no-return policy.
I have fond memories of my childhood,
But beneath that is a creeping horror
That I might be remembering it wrong:
That it was actually no different
To any other time in human history,
When the bad fought the good and,
Despite the hype,
The bad always won.
But I can’t believe that.
I look back on a golden time
Through rose-coloured glasses
And think: it’s alright.
It’s all good.
Yeah, I’m fine.
©Shaun Green 2023