we say: cast out the man with lantern eyes & brows spelling thunder who slows the deathly flooding in your child blood of blood, sweet woman count not the broken phials and strewn violence! banish him Ausländische Prinzessin! A mother's love is but hysteria. Written for the Sanaa's dVerse Quadrille prompt "Casting a Poetic Spell"
I rake leaves and contemplate the selling of beauty as a capitalist ideal: boxed and essenced, smelling sweet. Meanwhile, the western sky rips apricot horizons from blue. Another day ends in brutal waxing. No, hun. That's just a sunset. I read Misky's lovely Sevenling and thought... that's a form I could try! I hope you … Continue reading Sevenling (I rake leaves..)
I try to think kindly of Icarus, waxed feathers and florid heat melted wax, & boiled tears he leaned into that bud of sun too far he believed & the hot rose beckoned greasing the sky with his epiphany the oily swathe of his feathered fall a grim sort of way to be a legend … Continue reading modern suns
(hopefully brief) we are all but sharks in the planet’s glowing tides snapping at spilled blood and exhausted by a need to grow teeth some days a deep breath means looking up... missing keystones and folded tower-blades, all in the seven greys of a dead fish, clouds raked into piles and societies bent low, as … Continue reading a failure in optimism
"The Roaster" by Pablo Picasso this one feather-struck and cock-eyed and tongue hard-wired to drunken yell yodel yay eeeeee! he says do you love it? my self-portrait it's the psychedelic '70s so you see i am the dawn, ladies from wishbone to tail feather i am the dawn hear me roar he tapes himself on … Continue reading Disillusioned
A Villanelle I have no interest in the news in which I can’t find a marbled fact, just people with power spouting views I feel I have to hunt for clues where truth and fiction interact I have no interest in the news I want hope, tea with kindness, light diffuse; not lies like eggshells: … Continue reading No News Nancy
Write about the weather in Present Tense These last few days, everyone is saying “Thank goodness for the sun!” People are stretching like cats, long skin and whiskers pleased. It’s true the summer has been a wet one. Canberra wringing in a wet towel, warmth like dogs breath fogging up the sky. Mosquitoes are having … Continue reading #Go Dog Go Haibun Wednesday
she said: "journalism is an omlette broken eggs and the mothering dreams of cows" "social media fry-up" he objected graphite eyes among candles "truth is cartilage the bend makes us beautiful" merlot flame in glasses glowed his stone her fire and the blackening between Written for De Jackson's dVerse Quadrille Monday #137 - "Stone"
It was said that all things must pass: the big wheels turning, turning over the drought-lands, the down-and-out lands cattle skeletons ploughed in like rotted ships fence-posts - frayed and far-fetched zippers - dragging lines of wind-sawn wire – dun and drear the fierce fires rolling, roiling wanton flames - the lunge and buck, the … Continue reading Things that Pass
Soldiers (and not only you) they may lie before you die they may lie again when your speechless body is in earth's pouch the close, dark hug of it... your life given for a cause... not yours. Lies are the wounds in all our histories suppurating as tiny texts in little known museums or finding … Continue reading Truth
crude wooden tripods stand tethered human pendulums swinging amongst fumes and fuming damming politicians and incandescent commuters damming the city’s arteries a timely attack the heart on the hill* bloodless while the body rages taut fists enacting death throes of a planet in need *Australia's Parliament House is commonly referred to as "the house on … Continue reading Extinction Rebellion
Hey! did you hear about that chick, Persephone? You know, she was in in that movie with Jason Gyllenhaal, yeah she’s gorgeous. Remember that scene with all the flowers? OMG soooo cheesy! Anyway, so Persephone went off with her whack-job Uncle Hades. I mean, he must’ve been a prick, right? It’s like that Lolita movie, … Continue reading More Celebrity Goss
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
the Romans feathered helmets erect learned the sterility of war their Empire's wondrous landmarks became punctuation in history's soil their roads crossed continents in massive webs their confidence still glimmers in ancient armour and upturned pillars but now, we're in dress-rehearsal writing history our age split asunder by tablets lit with green-glowing back-turned candles - … Continue reading Different Century, Same…?
Fenny Fawcett ran a factory printing fiction and fantasy but while enjoying fanciful fiction, she also liked her facts, you see. ** Fiction claimed as fact, she could only view as fallacy and she fought this fact confection with significant potency. ** Fenny started fracking for fiction in our history and finally formed a faction … Continue reading Fenny’s Fact Story
You'll probably recognise the tune this goes with: Hush little Aussies, you've nothing to fear Scotty's giving gifts before election year If you vote blue, not red or green Scotty will get you the fastest vaccine. If that fastest vaccine won't ship Scotty's gonna get you a Natural Gas drip. If that gas is industry … Continue reading Hush Little Aussies
Inspired by this story: ABC News this mud, you say, came from yonder creek all frothing brown tea and gentle chatter among cicada's fierce racket and spearing acacia this mud, you say, wandered in 18,000 years ago on the feet of wasps, as busily they tessellated their bulbous home, 3D printing on this shaggy wall … Continue reading Mud from a Chattering Creek
Late night stabbing: man run through by dubious kebab!
I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts and among the ones I really like is “How to Fail with Elizabeth Day”. Elizabeth Day (author and journalist) interviews successful people (often mini celebs, on the internet if nowhere else). Not being a twitter user and not being British and just generally living largely under … Continue reading The Moneyarchy
Each Christmas I write a newsy letter and email it off for worse or better to friends and family, colleagues and such who may or may not care that much. Then, this year a neighbour chanced to say that she throws her Christmas cards away and how newsletters bore her half to hell and she … Continue reading The Newsletter
(The Rabbit Hole is a podcast produced by the New York Times. Definitely worth a listen.) So there's this French guy, right. He has a university degree in Artificial Intelligence. He's smart and he does well. He gets offered a job at a big well known tech firm in Silicon Valley. He's proud as punch … Continue reading Story from The Rabbit Hole
I am not a sailor. I get seasick pretty easily and am quite terrified of big weather on land, let alone at sea. But I have heard that one threat to the sea-faring sailor, is the existence of submerged shipping containers, floating invisibly beneath the waves. Imagine the shock of running into one! The thing … Continue reading Submerged Containers
If you look at what's published as "News", it's easy to get confused about who or what you should be listening to. A few weeks ago, I remember reading an interview with Tom Hanks' wife after she was released from the QLD hospital where she and Tom Hanks were treated for COVID19. I can't remember … Continue reading The Hierarchy of Knowledge
Today I got an email from Chat10, Looks3 - my favourite podcast with Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales. They can't hold their "Live In Brisbane" show because of COVID19 so they're doing a "live on Facebook" broadcast. I have no idea what that looks like but I guess I won't find out because I am … Continue reading The Division Machine
On the ABC I read today that when Dr Brendan Murphy was asked if Australia was likely to employ lockdown measures such as those being used in Europe, his response was: "It is potential that could be the case, but that may be focal." Poor Dr Murphy! To say a sentence like that and then … Continue reading “It is potential that could be the case, but that may be focal”
This week the Australian Government announced that they were imposing travel bans from Iran and South Korea. Italy, on the other hand, was only having “enhanced screening” inflicted. Even at that time, Italy’s cases exceeded Iran’s and their death rate exceeded South Korea’s. In the late ‘70s, my family up and moved to Indonesia. Friends … Continue reading What colour is this virus, anyway?
Last night, my brother in law sent through a link to a podcast with Ezra Klein on which he interviews Saul Griffith - an Australian inventor, Macarthur genius fellow, and the founder and CEO of Otherlab, a high-tech research and development company on the frontlines of trying to imagine our clean energy future. By the … Continue reading It’s Marketing After All
When I was small, we lived on a little Indonesian Island. I was only seven when we left so I don't have clear memories but I have heard many stories. One was about an election in which two neighbouring villages voted "incorrectly". As a result, the road through them was not sealed and they had … Continue reading The hidden strings behind the “Miracle” unveiled
I often listen to Conversations with Richard Fidler in which Richard Fidler is the interviewer. He has a knack for letting people talk or persuading them to move on. He is pretty empathetic and I haven't figured out how you plan an interview that will last for an hour. How many times is he taken … Continue reading The ABC
Out of the Cave 