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
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
we have all watched that expert flick as the doctor levels the serum in the syringe and then holds it at eye-level to the light before carefully adjusting for the perfect airless dose. We have all seen that little squirt (or dribble) of precious liquid that signifies "safe to proceed". But now as COVID sweeps … Continue reading The Irony of =
Mask up and sell a face. The opposition can't knock it off like they do by roadsides... so many horizontal pollies sleeping faces in their red borders. Cover your nose with the unmasked face of your favourite candidate. Let them catch your sneezes and the aerosol threats of all around you. Truly useful highly caring … Continue reading I will protect you…
The minister says "I am a Trump supporter. So are most of my congregation so we are not politically inclined to wear masks." My brain does a manoeuvre not dissimilar to a cockatoo i watched yesterday wobbling on a telephone wire, flipping upside down and swinging by one claw with its head undulating amusingly from … Continue reading Who is going to help?
you know... that tiny town with the giant concrete elephant in the bakery garden. it's in the mountain country between the moonscape and the escarpment. hell yeah. it's built for poets with a retired general store and that old pub with the arched stable entrance where you can almost hear the jingle of century-old traces. … Continue reading Nimmitabel
The new puppy meant the school holidays were limited almost entirely to our own house and backyard - a kind of canine lockdown due to the vaccination process still being in train for the little ball of fluff. And because he's so new to the house, we didn't want to leave him alone for … Continue reading Admissions of Glugging
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
I have a picture in my head of 3 monkeys; you know the ones. The one with its ears covered, that's the politicians. The one with its eyes covered, that's the general population. The one with its mouth covered, that's the scientists. Decades, they've known about viruses and aerosol spread. Decades. But WHO listened? … Continue reading Speak No Evil
You are awkward, you know, your reticence for days and days and then your suddenly aggressive presence. Even those who barely acknowledge you are sneakily manipulated into hurting their loved ones. It's dirty. A cruel game. And yet, you're the great assimilator moving between cultures and climates, smooth as lies. To threaten that you will … Continue reading To COVID19
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 … Continue reading Politics, Heroes and Victims
Out of the Cave 