Poem Post: No Country for Old Men
By Dominic Symes
at the reading I was thinking how can I afford to keep drinking like a poet? because that’s what poets do think I mean & thinking these priceless thoughts that are priceless in the way a toddler glues colours macaroni to a piece of paper & the kindergarten teacher says your budding aesthetic sensibilities have an intrinsic value that is worth more than money I’m at a loss see my parents love it —the macaroni (so colourful)—they love it less when I come home at 2am on a Wednesday 29 years old whispering myself up the stairs to make very bourgeois sandwiches in the light of their refrigerator that’s not what I wanted this poem to be about but like sand in a pair of Docs worn to the beach it manages to find a way in & ruin your life Capitalism like a very persistent mosquito buzzing around your head biting you until you acquiesce & start monetising all your hobbies (all this for a prize?) it started (all great schemes do) at the bar where I was standing with Banjo James & maybe it was because we were in the middle of making jokes about Les Murray but suddenly all the old men looked just like cows heading out to pasture being poked & prodded by their minders Banjo stood looking like he always does bearded & blue collar-ish possessing all the charm & menace of Javier Bardem in that movie by the Coen Brothers said don’t worry mate our turn will come —anyway I let Banj buy the beers see being a young poet & having no money is sort of a blessing but in the more literal Judeo-Christian sense where no one believes anything you do has value until you’ve been dead for at least a hundred years I trick myself into thinking I am usually reasonably productive when I am hungover but this morning I am positively dying & all my poems seem really pointless so I end each one with then I found $50 I don’t know is it possible to be both pretentious & sincere? saturnine & prosperous? I wanted this poem to be more hopeful, Banj then I found $50
Listen to the poem:
About this poem
‘No Country for Old Men’ appears on page 42 of I Saw the Best Memes of My Generation by Dominic Symes, published by Recent Work Press. It’s a brilliant and funny book that rewards re-reading - I highly recommend it.
About the poet
Dominic Symes (he/him) lives quietly on the unceded land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation.
He is a PhD graduate in Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide where he received a Dean’s Commendation award and the ‘Bundey Prize for English Verse’ in 2018.
His first published poem won the Express Media Award for ‘Best Poem Published in Voiceworks’ in 2015. His poetry has been published in journals such as Overland, Rabbit, Transnational Literature, Australian Book Review and anthologies including Australian Poetry Journal, Award Winning Australian Writing and Best of Australian Poems.
‘I Saw the Best Memes of My Generation’ is kelpie approved ✨