who you gonna call?

 

before my brain operation

I knew what I was talking about

no one else did

 

maybe my poems

are like that

 

it doesn't take an Einstein

to say e = whatever

but whatever it is

 

it's bugging me

 

I can't produce

a testable hypothesis

with universal application

in verse

 

they say to me

don't give up your day job

 

they don't know

I work at night

in secret

searching for the

 

patently obvious

 

someone wrote a novel about it once

I can't remember the title

but there was this character

 

who was a bit obscure

 

you had to look beyond the book

not at it

and in your peripheral vision

 

a vague image

a thumbprint with ears

perhaps smiling

 

would loom into view

 

and disappear the moment you looked at it

 

I tried the ghost buster approach

with a shotgun

but the book

 

leaked after that

wouldn't keep the rain out

and when closed

the wind whistled through

 

I looked for another copy

at the State Library

not in their catalogue

 

at THE Hobart Bookshop

Chris Pierce said sorry

out of print

 

then I tried amazon

.com

 

paid $1.48 for a second hand copy

plus $9.79 shipping & handling

 

seven days later a memo from the seller my apologies but I could not find this book to send I must have already sold it your order with me has been fully refunded and cancelled total refund for this order $11.27

 

meanwhile

my tumour

 

is growing again

already the signs

 

are not good