John Forbes gilt als wichtig­ster Vertreter der zeit­genös­sis­chen Poe­sie Aus­traliens (falls man das sagen kann von jemand, der seit 12 Jahren tot ist). Hier eins mein­er Lieblings­gedichte von ihm. Andere und mehr Infor­ma­tio­nen gibt’s hier.

Ode to Karl Marx

Old father of the hor­ri­ble bride whose
wed­ding cake has final­ly col­lapsed, you

spoke the truth that doesn’t set us free—
it’s like a lever made of words no one’s

learnt to oper­ate. So the machine it once
con­nect­ed to just accel­er­ates & each new

rap dance video’s a per­fect image of this,
bod­ies going faster and faster, still dancing

on the spot. At the moment tho’ this set up
works for me, being paid to sit and write &

smoke, thumb­ing through Adorno like New Idea
on a cold work­ing day in Bal­larat, where

adult unem­ploy­ment is 22% & all your grand
schema­ta of intri­cate cause and effect

work out like this: take a mus­cle car &
wire its accel­er­a­tor to the floor, take out

the brakes, the gears the steer­ing wheel
& let it rip. The dumb­est tat­tooed hoon

—mor­tal dia­mond hang­ing round the Mall—
knows what hap­pens next. It’s fun unless

you’re strapped inside the car. I’m not,
but the dum­mies they use for test­ing are.

(John Forbes)