a failure in optimism

(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

#Go Dog Go Haibun Wednesday

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

Things that Pass

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

the goose and the magpie nest

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

Extinction Rebellion

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

August – Haibun Monday

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

Different Century, Same…?

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…?

Politics, Heroes and Victims

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.

Reposted for Fandango’s Flashback Friday

Out of the Cave

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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And They Wrote the World

It is no lie that the scrunched fists and inexpert fingers which carved shapes respresenting language, wrought the shapes from privilege causing materials and education to come at a price beyond the common hut dweller. Secrets and power, bore out, stamped and sealed with gold kept for selected audiences. They took their blocks and then … Continue reading And They Wrote the World

Fenny’s Fact Story

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

An Instant Library

Recently, my parents acquired a book put together by their community about the fires and then the floods which swept through the area last summer. People contributed photos and stories of their experiences. The book shows humans doing their best in a world turned totally crazy. On their faces are fear, sadness, determination, and hope. … Continue reading An Instant Library

I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way…

Fandango’s Flashback Friday (only I’m late because we were away for the weekend) suggests posting a blog from this date on a previous year. I don’t have Friday’s exact date but this is only one day out. I hope you enjoy…

Out of the Cave

I
hate this wind and the brown sky and the pluming brown dust and the
brown, brown oval… except where the sprinkler has leaked and there
is a patch of rich green – a puddle reflecting what used to be.

The
scraping leaves exfoliate my heart like an acid. On days like to
today (today, when it was supposed to rain) I find it so hard to
believe that everything will be okay.

As
I walked this morning, a few spats of rain found their way to the
ground, like salt on a meal. When I got home I looked at the radar.
Down south, there is rain. So that is something.

Yesterday
at the fruit shop, the cashier lady, just returned from 6 weeks “at
home” in Bhutan commented that “compared to home, Australia is a
desert”. She landed, on Friday, in Sydney, thinking it an overcast
day, expecting…

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Australia’s Summer

I cannot forget your steely-white glare; the too-hot press of you against my skin. My body contracted until cracks appeared. Plants wilted, waterholes sucked in and my body fissured abandoned to exuberant wind and the angry roar of carbon-crazed dragons. The smoke rolled over us all like hell's too-slow envoy. Before it, a syndicate of … Continue reading Australia’s Summer