Pasha Malla - All Our Grandfathers Are Ghosts

Pasha came out for the Sydney Writers Festival recently. I saw him do a poetry reading at Number One wine bar in The Rocks. I had never read any of his stuff before, but was very, very pleasantly surprised. Pasha has a ridiculous ability manipulate emotions. His stuff kind of reminds me of Etgar Kerret. As well as this, he was super friendly, giving me a copy of his poetry collection AOGAG that he read from. Top bloke. Below are the stand outs.

The Proper Grammar
1. But when the guy behind the counter
showed us that .22,
like a discovery of unfamiliar briefs in the hamper,
thins changed.

2. How soiled my trousers were
- And yours too, Harold -
that day
in Manitoba.

The men named James and the woman, Alice
1. They are all just muscles and beard,
muscles and beard.

Best Poem Ever
1. You'd think she won
the Oscar
for Being Awesome,
or something

Booty Call
1. one of those guys
who'll take his shirt off at the park
and can throw a frisbee
like a ventriloquist -
that is, into the distance,
and trickily.

I got my MFA in haiku and this was my thesis:
One, two, three, four, five.
One, two, three, four, five, six, sev-
en. Shit, i fucked up.

Baseball: A Cricketer's Primer
1. Forward, onward, upward! Such is America.

2. Imagine the clean-cut, poster-worthy good looks of a cricketer.
Now, add a moustache: baseball.

Natalie Portman, Listen
1, But we're getting off on the wrong foot,
and i don't even own a sword.

2. And the world would sigh a little bit at each one.

3. Your body is a synagogue

4. I would dance a saucy Semitic dance.

Stop Following Me
1. and how sober the next morning
you wanted on so many levels
to kick in
your own face?