Winnie the Pooh trips in every episode

he is just so predictable like that

something most people don’t know about him though

is that, because he touches his face a lot when he is in deep thought

and because he is a deep thinker

he has problems with his skin
like a teenage club rat he has depressions

they’re small but they’re there, in between the fur

unlike me, Pooh chases butterflies like nobody’s watching

eats honey with his hands never mind the fur

and most of all, doesn’t let this kind of thing affect his self-esteem
although he lives rural he’s pretty easy to find

usually seated at the foot of the biggest gumtree or by the creek

Pooh’s comfort in any kind of country is psychopathic

in the way he sits fur on ground, or root or branch
in comparison I am out of place

wheeling a lightweight suitcase because I have come from the city

it bounces awkwardly across the rocks, gathers scratches

like a rickshaw in a ball pit it just doesn’t fit, gets stuck, drags
Winnie the Pooh wants to come to a party with me in the CBD

which is why I have come, to fetch him.
we have a mutually beneficial relationship of verse mentor and mentee

because I am only 25 and Pooh is 93, he teaches me about life

and I teach Pooh about all things sexual, because Pooh is a virgin
Pooh says that though he has visited many volcanoes

he has never been a volcano

he says all he wants is to erupt, like a cane toad run over by a car

what he wants is an orgasm that feels like falling asleep, but even better

something to bring him back to life

he has realised coming is more intense than honey

like a driver, Pooh is entirely confident that he can handle anything

so is excited for the party.
I find him leaning against the big gumtree fashioning a painful looking strap on

out of bits of spinifex, bark and one very long, thin stick

looking at him, his little round head bowed, paws fumbling

I feel a powerful but unidentifiable feeling rise up inside me
Hello Pooh

like a plane flying low over a burial my voice grates, slices and thins

and finally goes away

I try to sound cheerful, because truly I am cheered to see him

but my mouth stretching upwards feels like a deflated balloon

it has been tough in the city lately
Pooh’s eyes rest on me for just a moment before returning to his project

Hello Kat

he says, his voice round and unmistakeably gay
the first time I met Pooh was on my way to the V line at southern cross station

I found him drinking a Tsingtao beside the escalators at sunrise

and because I too had been drinking a Tsingtao, we’d both laughed
How are you?

I’m okay. It has been tough in the city lately, but now that I’m here I’m

wondering what about it has been so tough.
there is a brief pause during which pooh is touching his face

I feel my hand fly to my own face as if attached to a string

located just below the left corner of my lip is my favourite crater at the moment

I finger it lovingly and look around at the trees

stretching sideways rather than upwards, and through instead of around
Pooh has found a good spot too, on his forehead

I am overwhelmed by a sudden desire to wrap my arms around his firm round tummy

and squeeze
Pooh, unaware of my urges, folds his paws neatly in his lap

Pooh’s skin is in an improved state but my own is atrocious

virtually peeling off from my new medication, much worse than it’s ever been

my very own metropolitan disease

the silence drags
my skin is always worse in metropolitan areas because city life encourages

loops, or rumination, I think
Pooh shuffles rubs his right paw on the grass, fiddling

he finds a blade he likes and concentrates

as his face changes expression the old scars on his skin squish

closer together, further apart, this way and that

after a minute of this he turns his black dots to me

his eyes always a sideways colon

like

:
I think cities are quite wonderful actually

Pooh’s words comes his familiar blinking, doctorly smile

often mistaken to be good natured, the smile is murderous

as if to say, I’m not sure what any of this has to do with me

as if to say, what time is the train to the city
I feel disproportionately hot and heavy

as in anger everything slows down

the leaves shuffle loudly and suddenly in the stirring wind for what feels like a long time
Should we go?

I say, feeling upset now and no longer wanting to be around trees
on the train I feel like he is mocking me behind his mask

every time I try to make conversation I feel it
at the party we have an average time

Pooh meets somebody and I take a car back to my apartment alone

when I get home the made up sofa bed is pristine and untouched

I crawl inside the crisp sheets and fall asleep and dream of confronting Pooh
I am from the city and you are from the country

Dream me says

I am human and you are animal

but like you I have no real origin story

and like you I don’t identify with my family

are your parents still alive? You never speak of them

I am very, very humble just like you are

big brass gates and infinity driveways that’s not me

I left dress ups in 2001

I identify with you pooh

you’re always waiting for Chris and I’m always waiting for something

and you’re just so confident

with your skin… and you’re still such a public figure

I just wish I could be like that

I guess I just feel some sort of kinship with you because of your skin

condition

because I have a similar thing as you know

but I erased myself from the entire world because of my skin

If you google my name you won’t find a thing

I care about things you wouldn’t know a thing about

Dream Pooh says cooly,

Even in the dream his eyes are like

. .

we have nothing in common

all you humans do is underestimate and objectify me

you know recently a human girl was surprised I knew the song Landslide

by Fleetwood Mac

And now you’re saying we’re the same?
when I wake up I call Pooh and we go to the gym and then we hit the spa and sauna

I don’t tell him about the dream but he tells me he had a great time last night

I drop him at the station and his goodbye seems authentically mournful

I will most likely visit him again soon