Owen Bullock
your Ashes to Ashes clown costume said this one human can be many but we learnt the catechism: go to Uni, get a job oh you look strange in that men don’t usually wear colour you’re all the same you alternative types play music, act and juggle have you made up your mind yet whether you’re a poet or a musician? instructions kept coming: can you tone it down a bit? could you please not write so much? you can’t try on her fur coat till we accepted too many compromises (innovation like a sweaty costume) but some days when we slice a few minutes off the clock open another tab, flash up a track: ‘Putting out Fire with Gasoline’ ‘Life on Mars’ ‘Fly’ tears come streaming back (the tears someone stole) with the absolute knowledge this one human can be many
Owen Bullock has published poetry, haiku, tanka and fiction; most recently, Uma rocha enorme que anda à roda (A big rock that turns around), translations of tanka into Portuguese by Francisco Carvalho (Temas Originais, 2021); Summer Haiku (Recent Work Press, 2019) and Work & Play (Recent Work Press, 2017). He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Canberra. He has a website for his research: https://poetry-in-process.com/ @OwenTrail @ProcessPoetry