This is what I remember: forty degrees and a Halloween glow at 6pm; we took our children up Mt Ainslie to see a city under siege - the sewer brown smoke bloodying the sun. The lake dread gold, Tolkien's Smaug unleashed summer ashes raining Written for dVerse's Monday Quadrille "Ash"
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 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
The river in green and glassy garb exhales mist so coolly opposite to fire's cloudy breath Young mister three climbs the gate threatening to hurtle down the hill beyond. But he pauses on a rumble; that cough, that roar, it's the voice of big machinery. He points "a bulldozer!" And there it is - a … Continue reading morning walk
(I wrote this for a competition in which there was a 1000 word limit. It didn't win so, several months later, I think I will publish it here.) It turns out that waiting is the hard part. You decide that waiting needs to be redefined to mean “empty space; opportunity for useless worry.” As the … Continue reading Waiting..
Knock knock.Who's there?It's your conscience.What? You again! Please leave me alone. Isn't there some tenancy agreement where I get to reside here without your interference?My dear, I'm the tenant. Not you.Shit... You've got a complaint then.You should be pleased to see me.Ha! Why would that be?Because, my dear, you are on a tight rope above … Continue reading Knock Knock
Sew yourself a mask from this winter sunset and wear it like an apricot smile. Examine those silhouette branches - a set of charcoal fingerprints pointing at summer and those angrier, suffering skies. It's that kind of year, you know when, instead of beauty or fine weather, a shard of blue 'twixt the clouds reminds … Continue reading 2020 – Poem from a Photo
P has done real battle now. He has been there on the front among 30 foot flames, writhing fire hoses, heat, choking smoke, his hat struck by water from the water bombers, glad for the cool reprieve, too awash with adrenaline to feel fear or exhaustion. He has looked after a man who forgot to … Continue reading A Personal Peek
Out of the Cave 