Even the straightest can bust a move, I mean she's one square peg, or so we thought, but now old Sandilands is comparing notches, tit for tat, no pun intended, I swear. We all thought that woman is beat, whipped and stiff as eggs and sugar. Then badda-bing... and Mr Murdoch's taken her in, has … Continue reading The Rising…
Blow on a dandelion - is he? isn't he? is he? isn't he? - until it begins to look like him in a fuzzy, funny way. Nobody knows when he caught the bug. Nobody knows if it's let him go. The secrets swirl mistily around that great, white house and the man - his irate … Continue reading Waiting for Election Day
You are that proud yacht: sails full, wind-tilted facing the waves with confidence and grace Your bow wave - that iridescent 'V' - presses outward meeting other ripples, going (it seems) for miles. I don't know if anybody heard you coming - so young and so clean - but you're going to sail around a … Continue reading For Jacinda Ardern
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
If it were me who bit that chunk out of the moon, would I glow from the inside like a firefly? ** From the inside like a firefly who bit that chunk out of the moon. Would I glow if it were me? ** Who bit that chunk out of the moon? Would I glow … Continue reading The Firefly
(A thank you to V) We walk & talk until she stops beside a flower to smell or gently touch. Or to trace patterns & colourations in bark (have you seen the hieroglyphs on a scribbly gum?) ** Sometimes beneath a gnarly tree she stands & ponders reading stories of historic kinship with indigenous people … Continue reading When I get home, I am singing.
We found ourselves in the sun beside the lake with its glinting horizontal lines. The grass was green and soft and the blossom trees sent breaths of white tumbler-petals harmlessly among the seated every time the casuarinas sighed. We are here to remember my grandfather among the petals and the singing and the mellow clang … Continue reading A re-work of At the Peace Bell
I say: "Our two roosters seem to be quite good friends." He says: "Yes. They've established a hierarchy. They all know their place. That's what's so good about chooks." We used to know our places too. Not anymore. So I say: "Yeah. None of this feminism stuff." I'm laughing. As a woman I can do … Continue reading Progress in the Chicken House
a petal from a spring blossom drifts up white, almost iridescent in the angled light and disappears above the balcony roof. ** the cat eases down shoulder first to the carved wood belly golden ripe for the sun one paw in elegant outstretch. ** even the puppy lies quiet, a flat white, you could say, … Continue reading Fore & Aft
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 =
