pour happy thoughts into your breakfast bowl that summer mayn't dry out hope leaving it on footpaths adrift amongst the stepping stone madness of commuter feet try looking for a moment through the spectrum of flowers petal art by vein they have hearts too open to the sun begging for bees and if they wilt … Continue reading They Have Hearts Too
Me & My Lid On some days in my Lockdown exercise hour the sun has poured its soothing ink quietly like warm milk between still trees and the roads have lain empty as snakeskin between closed houses. And even the birds seemed awed by the largeness of silence. But other days, the madding wind flips … Continue reading Lockdown Moods
bare little tree - small bird's nest revealed (we imagine a goose one webbed foot curved to twiggy bowl, the other flaps about rowing the air honk! honk! her arm through mine enjoying a giggle). geese 'V' on high but we can't fly. we gallop the drawn lines our dog and our masks. blue sky … Continue reading the goose and the magpie nest
August follows from a grey and fearful July – the closed hatch of cities in lock-down. Concrete and buildings hunkered under shifty, flannelette skies. The grime of recycled messages from haggard, mesh-faced leaders. Closed front doors, a stultifying blank. Resentment breeds as fast as the virus itself. Different areas, different rules. Anger like pavement cracks … Continue reading August – Haibun Monday
So this is what I wrote 12 months ago on July 9th. A lot has changed and nothing has changed. In Australia, it is Sydney, not Melbourne in Lockdown and facing a new, more contagious form of the virus. I know a lot more people in Sydney than I do in Melbourne and I hear more of the strains of the Lockdown. It’s not easy. But, having been a bit self congratulatory early on, I think Berejiklian has knuckled down and accepted that this is going to be harder than she thought.
Biden is now president in the US and I gather that, in terms of COVID, things are improving.
But personally, last year seems like a doddle compared to 2021. Everything is relative.
As Victoria rushes to stem the tide of COVID, other Australian states look on, both sympathetic and protective of their own safety. Borders are closing. The Queenslanders (with the whole of New South Wales between them and Victoria) even suspect Victorians of smuggling themselves across the border on freight trucks. Maybe it’s true but it seems unbelievable to me.
This year is unbelievable.
World politics is unbelievable.
In the US, the numbers are terrifying. Over 1600 deaths in the last two days and 61,848 new cases just yesterday. P showed me the graphs.
He made the remark that during two days in April, more people died of COVID19 than died in the September 11 attacks in 2001.
And yet Trump still glosses over it and congratulates himself on saving thousands of lives.
Will the dead be remembered every year in memorials all over the country? Will the doctors who tried…
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It's Wednesday night and in homes across the catchment children are asked to "keep it down" while one parent finds a hidey hole which pretends to be an office for another COVID19 P&C meeting on time, on track and on budget on Skype The topic is the school fete beset by 1.5 metre problems and … Continue reading P&C Revolution
when the kids are in bed and the dishwasher swishes rhythmically; when the lights in the house are down to two and if we had an analogue wall clock its ticking would be immense; when i've settled down with chocolate and a cup of hot cocoa and i get my computer mouse mixed up with … Continue reading A bit of Friday Night Nonsense
An itinerary is the path of bricks on which we hope to tread we lay our plans in naivety of what might happen instead. Everything is sold on hope - a wish, a solution, a cure - but the future's own itinerary's the only one that's secure.
To watch those peaky mountains in fearsome upward climb day after trending day... such impersonal numbers until you consider the quiet funerals and prolific wreaths - concentric blue rings of arcing grief. Will the ripples one day collide and splinter this facade of unquiet peace?
COVID has spread the annual spring flower festival like seeds across the city. Tulips on street corners guarded by raggedy scarecrows, pansies posing brightly at busy intersections or window boxes brought to rainbow life outside public buildings. There are no rides this year or crafty stalls or fragrant food trucks ** And yet the joy … Continue reading Floriade
Out of the Cave 