THE LAST SONG OF RENATA JACKSON TANNER

Renata Jackson Tanner moves in silence

after a restless night

through the hotel hallway’s muted light

to the foyer from her room

careful not to catch a heel

the rugs woven once in Persia

where civilization is rumoured to have begun

colours faded and  fabric worn

desperate men line the corridor

drinking shoe polish

distilled on a hot-plate

another way of taking a boot to the mouth

without provocation

I saw a man walking on three legs

bent over like a piece of cardboard

cast off beside the road

and had to avert my eyes

how much punishment can the aging body

accommodate

the Renata Jackson Tanner Trio

plays basement bars

jam packed against the exits

Taj adrift in the crowded room

wearing spandex and chiffon

a billowing blouse buttoned once

‘The Swede’ Bergstrom

beats the bass drum and brushes

the snare

Sy the sax player

who lost his wife to cancer

never blows a note swaddled in cheap sentiment

his music a swollen river

broke free from its banks

between sets she smokes

a cigarette in the laneway

it is a warm night hazy

and threatening rain

Sy comes out after

talking to a woman

who’d seen him play in Denver

he prefers to smoke a joint

a life-long habit so

difficult to break

and ‘The Swede’ with a beer in hand

shudders and nearly trips

damn those concrete stairs

goose dogs roam free

a basset hound with wings

graffiti lit by a single bulb

above the cellar door

the disconcerting rustle of rodents

scratching at the dumpster

down the street

it’s time once more

to perform and take requests

Micky Quinn the comic MC

and now ladies and germs

back for a second set

the Renata Jackson Tanner Trio

let’s have a big hand

I first heard this song

from Ric Von Schmidt

baby let me follow you down, baby let me follow you down

well I’ll do anything in this godalmighty world

if you just let me follow you down.

can I come home with you, baby can I come home with you?

yes I’ll do anything in this godalmighty world

if you just let come home with you.

it was a different world then

Renata Jackson Tanner thought

where bonds were forged of steel

not lace so flimsy and uncertain

how she longs for

a proper friend

just then the server

drops a tray of drinks

that stain the garments

of the patrons at the table

tan suits on tan bodies and dresses

made of silk and feathers

all thrown into disarray

a thigh uncovered

a blonde woman

statuesque and tall

like Anita Eckberg rising

awkwardly from the floor

and the server if she’s seventeen

takes a slap across the face

and a man at the next table says

what the fuck are you doing

and from a tan suit wet with rum

and coke across the groin

a gun appears and a shot

rings out and the exit doors are blocked

and there is pandemonium in the cellar

with fists and furniture flying

and limp bodies fallen

NO EXIT

no shit

a social network of someone else’s making

baby let me follow you down, baby let me follow you down

On Drawing

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Learning to draw…remains an activity of enormous importance and potency for education as a whole. Learning to observe, to investigate, to analyze, to compare, to critique, to select, to imagine, to play and to invent constitutes the veritable paradigm of functioning effectively in the world.

Deanna Petherbridge, THE PRIMACY OF DRAWING, Yale University Press
Photograph, Life Drawing at Mill Road Studio