Bio
BN Oakman, formerly an academic economist, has published many poems in journals and magazines in Australia, the UK and the USA as well as two full length collections, In Defence of Hawaiian Shirts (IP 2010) and Second thoughts (IP 2014) plus two chapbooks. In 2016 the distinguished Australian actor John Flaus recorded 25 of Bruce's poems for a CD titled 'What did I know?' www.bnoakman.com.
BN Oakman
exegesis
when seasoned academics gather
to hold forth on this and that
it's easy for a mind to wander
to less contorted subject matters
to language merely mildly tortured
disinclined to subordinate a clause
and lacking nests of fine-split hairs
my head and heart fly to Madrid
to one of several favourite bars
and before I raise my third cognac
I'm jolted by a declaration
the exit jesus of this thesis is dreadful
and I cry out from near though far
when was it ever anything else?