post modern porn

a new gallery opening

a new art exhibition

of nudes

and yes you guessed it

mostly women

wandering around with the kids

I wondered where does the titillation stop

and the art begin

and when you are presented 

with that expanse of female flesh

what is art?

yogagirl said they were all hackneyed images

miles informed me that all his classmates 

would love to come and see the naked bodies

and elsa

she just pointed out the ones with flowers

once again

beauty or lack thereof

in the eye of the 

beholder.

and I wondered..

If you were to purchase a work of art

such as these

where in gods name would you hang it

the living room?

the bedroom?

best left to the imagination

(another form of) subtraction

 2013

-1971

_____

a funny thing happened on the way to bed last night

for the third night in a row

mathematics came for a visit

and Miles was not happy to see him.

Subtraction

the fine art of taking something away 

and leaving something behind

but how do you do it?

borrow one on the top

pay it back on the bottom

right?

or t least that's how I do it.

I had made an assumption

that because I had learnt that way

that was the way it was done

and therefore everybody did it that way.

Wrong!

Yogagirl was taught to scrub out 

the numbers as you go

and Miles was understandably confused.

I'm not saying its

my way or the highway.

but I learnt something pretty

fundamental.

our knowledge and how we acquired it

is totally unique

and there is always more than one way

to skin a cat.

which I guess is another form 

of subtraction.

life imitates art

almost shed a tear today

when cleaning out my sons room

we dumped a decades worth of toys on the floor

I said "keep what you want 

and chuck the rest"

we were renovating his room

shuffling furniture

creating a new space he'd want to be in

and of course throwing away all the old broken 

neglected toys.

I came across my old friend

buzz lightyear and looking 

on the soles of his feet

I could see Miles had written his name, 

much like Andy in the movie.

In the rest of the mess

I found his wings

which I lovingly attached

and although his batteries were dead

I could hear him cry

"TO INFINITY AND BEYOND"

a chuckle emerged from my throat

as I recalled years ago when my baby boy loved 

Toy Story although 

under a different name, to him it was

"andbeyond"

and in that moment 

I realised childhood is fleeting

you should cherish it 

while you can. 

Had I ?

and the truth people

was I didn't have the heart

to throw Buzz in the bin

so I placed him complete

in a different pile

and gave him to Sophie!

surgery

had a revelation yesterday

after 20 years a s a dentist

after a hundred implants

a thousand extractions

and the spilled blood

of many people

I like surgery

the fine art

of building inside

underneath 

hidden

by pink gum

the scalpel can be your friend

wield it 

carefully

slowly

precisely

presciently

dont whatever you do rush

and then underneath

you can remove that root

build that bone

place that implant

change that shape

and when you are done

methodically

neatly

securely

and without a hint of 

tension

sew it all up.

magically

after a week or two

out come the sutures

and its as if it 

had never happened

except it did

and there's at least two of you who remember.

as one of my mentors told me

the body heals despite what we do to it.

but good surgery 

helps.

Fuck

flew home monday

woke 3am tuesday

woke 3am wednesday

woke 3am thursday

woke 3am friday

fuck

fuck 

fuck 

fuck

anyone awake tomorrow morning early

say 3am?

time out of mind

Jet lag.

its not just a state of mind

all week we struggle to stay awake past 8pm

and struggle not to wake up at 3am

the kids, the wife, the dog

and I

and couple that with the coughing, 

the aches and pains

of a flu caught

travelling right down the back of the plane

in coach.

and the heat difference

new york, 

hot dry and dusty

sydney, 

cold damp and heavy.

and then there's work and 

normal life resuming.

the kids have their lessons

the wife teaches hers

and I go off to my place of work.

the big cars on the blink

suspension needs a total redo

too heavy for its airbags

its designed to fail.

and cost a shit load when it does.

and now i'm arguing with miles

about how to occupy himself

without a screen

at 4am

in the morning.

jet lag.