Melbourne Poem - Toilet Scribble

By Oscar Schwartz

I’m in love
With red head
With freckles!
– Borscht, Vodka, Tears: Chapel St, Windsor

Isn’t everyone?
Isn’t everyone falling in love
On the toilets of Melbourne?
When we focus our attention on the
Walls of a bathroom
We make communal that
Which was as private as a lie
Supplicate yourself to your art during the
Engagement of the body
The disappearance of person Into the character of the toilet bowl
And the disappearance of urine and fasces
From bowels to communal sewer
Our shit mingles together in Werribee
Our stench is communal, is that my toasted cheese
Or is it your cherry tomato
Red head, wherever you are,
You will have to use a toilet in this city
Some time soon
And then we’ll be together
Orange walls! Tender enamel sink!
Infested steel flusher, notice that
I’m in love
With Red head
With Freckles

But is it profane to leave the remnants of my love
On this bathroom wall?
Am I in a drunken brass band?
Is she anything more than my bartender?
Am I decreasing the volume of our love
By not sending my whole symphony down this well to meet her inevitable experiment
in Werribee?

I’m in love with your red hair, I’m in love with freckles
But I also loved the 72 tram when I first heard it rattle
Past the scanty nightclub lambs
And I still love the busker outside Dan Murphy’s
And the pawn shops, pet shops,
Condom shops, vacuum shops,
Hungry Jacks’ paper storms and assaults, I even love
The fable of the Prahran boys who terrorised
The skate gravel just a few breaths outside Prahran pool
Where fine food becomes communal waste
The red European
The night stalker
The red dress gum sticker
]All revolving around Thursdays chewing away at the
Thin wisp of life pre adulthood

I’m sure that you love the toilet sometimes
And that’s enough for me to believe in our love
“There are many footballers out tonight on Chapel St
They’re sharing their chests outside 7-eleven
They shit too – All I ask – Please don’t love them any more
Or any less than you love me

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