He comes the other way, a belly of puffing in his mouth. A child’s floral sun hat rests on his bald head and he carries an oven rack that swings with his stride. My mind dandles oddities knowing he’s done my work for me. dVerse Quadrille "work" hosted by msjadeli
The Scratch a face // the colour of porridge gone cold we’re all spun // wool in a ball ‘til the inner cat comes silent pounce draws blood unravelling tide and dreams: red plastic envelopes // hanging on the line type O+ is harder to find written for whimsygizmo's dVerse quadrille "type"
Truckie's Idyll Wrap me in kitsch this adumbral night; purple me with stars and a step-through moon. Set me to rolling milestone swift, swath-bottomed and cone-eyed, trundling beneath branches that crowd like puzzle pieces, roadside grasses breathe me in and out - feathered lungs fanfaring dreams Written for dVerse - Mish's Quadrille prompt "wrap"
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"
pumpernickel sky, low cut & dense grinding its heels in the carpark lights are on browsed by white teeth; the sleety rain splintering your hood, umbrella tick & charcoal puddles find traces of dry humour breathe hah hah! your hands are bloodless and burning Written for dVerse quadrille with Linda Lee Lyberg "browse"
Le Sommell by Salvador Dali Lately she finds sleep propped on fragile sticks // vinegar nights their pale heat blanching the sky. Closed eyes reveal nothing but absence // unbalanced retreat of shadows into thought. It's all a constant toppling, reaching for Earth but thrashing on... this cursed flight Written for dVerse Quadrille Monday "In … Continue reading Insomnia
The chicken preens. Filaments of skin, feather tip casings: fallen yellow like static on my sleeve. How readily it knows the art of being itself - a million tiny recollections of an unmet mother. But in the yard magpies ogle. I have my uses. written for dVerse Quadrille #151 (44 word poem including the word, … Continue reading Mothering a Chick
rain hangs like sifted chalk under park lights, still as drama the stage is set: dancers, strung like puppets from a drop-down sky black cat-suits two dimensional against luminescent green jewel-glint & risque poses only bedraggled bark ribbons give the trees away thunder applauds Written for Whimsygizmo's dVerse Quadrille - a 44 word poem including … Continue reading Night Act #Quadrille 150
Two hundred voices tuned to violins and wooden pipes. Kids wreathed in foliage sing songs of bees and royal peacock blooms crest heads. Crowns of cardboard glint - browns and golds meld among straw-bales and we pause in exquisite thought of tiny creatures noticing the seasons Written for dVerse Quadrille 'Tis the Season
And so the leaves tiptoe like rustled cotton through the window and my ear canal to my sleeping. For aren’t dreams simply echoes of the climate in my head? Exponential wind and beetling clouds and that periwinkle eyeball - weathered as moon-face - my only wisdom. Written for Bjorn's dVerse Quadrille (include the word "eye") … Continue reading Sleeping By an Open Window
Blackberrying in the pine forest splattered lime light the confetti of butterflies in blackberry tangle two khaki boots blue eyes sing of velvet fat juice like purple blood or thumb and thorn happy dichotomy dog and human melded in quiet veritas under this salt sky Written for dVerse quadrille with Whimsy Gizmo (use the word … Continue reading #quadrille 146
Pink Floyd car’s rumble thickly bass on burnt strip of tar I skinny-dip in terracotta beats and wide open chords drawn long as the desert sky. Stopping for fuel heat; a burst of flies imagines a shiver in the air skin raking for breezes. Written for dVerse Quadrille "Shiver" This is a lasting memory of … Continue reading “Meddle”
after our flood when the house tried to swim apart we bought spotted gum flooring and set its beautiful knots to tying us all back together my toe follows the straight edges loving sun fingers but musing on dark corners the spinning of dust Written for deJackson's dVerse Quadrille including the word "muse" and Go … Continue reading The Genius Under the Table
stand gently here, my friend breathe listen after the storm two bottles, half empty produce a haunting song making harmonies like telephones lines tinselled with dripping light they're not entwined like lover trees but see them bathe taking on evening and sky's renaissance purple Written for Mish's dVerse Quadrille #142 (include the word tinsel)
I have been flirting with tree crowns dipping in and out examining their broad lace velocities I like the rake of them especially the casuarinas whose needles send ripples like ribs coursing along my unbent air. They susurrate breathy as love and I sing. Written for Whimsygizmo's dVerse Quadrille - include the word "crown"
the sun our fair weather friend agreed to an “in-spirit” contract whereby like bottled lemonade his fizz may be captured, flat-packed on roof-tops and then sipped straw-like through wires but some of us prefer, hands in pockets hunting for the gravy of burnt dinosaurs Written for dVerse - Linda's Quadrille prompt "Fair"
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"
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"
deep scuba sweep - generous void of undersea gloom down to strangled kelp and coral beaks’ nip. a clam’s stiff lips womp and steal my heart, blows hollow bubbles prismatic nothing ballooning in organ's place. meanwhile in sequestered dark, unforgiving ridges beat at my blood Written for dVerse's Quadrille Prompt "Heart"
look there notes on a musical clef crotchets hanging sight read or flight's rest a row of pigeons silhouettes bowing to balance tails fanned clatter of wings pizzicato circling fright bow and fan again a photo, a tune a swing-rhythm a wing-rhythm a juke Written for dVerse Quadrille 131 with Brian Miller
dear moon, your full & timeless clock face lumbers sweetly to sky's zenith nightly to be clipped by nature's secateurs until in quiet arc you let blackness paint your trail. but such brief concession! re-seeding bravely unshyly reigniting unfurling, centripetal your stubborn orbit unmaimed Written for dVerse's Quadrille #127 Planting Seeds
Warning: This may have 44 words but calling it a Quadrille is somewhat pretentious. I don’t get: 1) people putting biodegradable dog turds into plastic and into landfill! 2) vets saying dogs shouldn’t eat bones (Isn’t that anti-evolution?) 3) the dog breeder promoting tinned food over delicious home cooked stew. It’s just bothersome companies looking … Continue reading Pet Peeves
“Wine is one of the most civilised things in the world...” but why? Civilisation is a human construct as is wine. It’s no more civilised than stainless steel which we also touch to our lips and which builds our bridges over those uncivilised rivers. This was written in response to dVerse (again belated) Quadrille #125. … Continue reading Hemingway says:
These myriad drops tapping my jacket soaking my jeans, and the propped dog legs akimbo, shakes from ears to tail progressively. Tying my shoelace, the knot oozes water like a squeezed rag; I remember last night’s moon arcing through gauze the wring of light. Challenge from Mish at dVerse: Write a poem of exactly 44 … Continue reading Quadrille #124
Out of the Cave 