12 Europe, Endless JOHN FORBES

fair hair
& driving for hours
along a freezing highway
'it's true' she said
'our rock music's shit
but we invented sexual attraction
didn't you know? in the 12th Century -
I mean they had it before
but not
as a central, defining principle
in the Subject's relation to the Other'
I looked across at her -
her fine boned face
& deep, serious eye -
Thanks, I said
Thanks a lot.


from New Music (Five Islands Press, 2001), edited by John Leonard. Used and reprinted by permission.


Click here for a video of the Melbourne premiere of Leonard Lehrman's setting, Jan. 5, 2002.