#2260 -- none of this belongs to me

 

2260

7.67

9.iii.26

none of this belongs to me

after wrestling with the translation of Andy Kissane’s ‘Alone again’

 

 

seas and trees and stars and soil

 

none of this belongs to me

 

but a car does and my house is timber

 

the wind and the rain – are little creatures

 

moving the leaves, catching light

 

turning to face and away

 

none of this belongs to me

 

the body is capable

 

place is always a matter of style

 

belonging, a part and apart  

 

perhaps that’s too abstract for you

 

light swims over a surface

 

shade moves the leaves, catching

 

that’s just where I’m from

 

seas and trees and stars and soil

 

my turn next and not long now

 

none of this belongs to me

 

when a difficult question is asked

I commit to not vanishing in a puff of smoke

 

run up a tree to the yonder blue

 

when I am nothing at all

(as good as having not been)

 

and nowhere

 

don’t we belong to the forest?

aren’t we a part of the sea?

 

no I to say then

nor having been to mean

 

the body capable till

 

a suitcase full of on my way

wheels to uninvent

 

flight downed

 

seas and trees and stars and soil

 

each of us singing

each a song

 

the question then –

will I have belonged?

#2259 -- even more haiku

 

2259

7.66

8.iii.26

even more haiku

 

 

the creek bed

dry leaves

all of us waiting around

 

 

duck oblivious

a moon sails on

one morsel and a next

 

 

a cat

and it must be the neighbour’s

I fear for the water dragon

#2258 - some new haiku and senryu

 

2258

7.65

7.iii.26

some new haiku and senryu

 

 

the mud ducks

their take off

a glitter in the sun

 

 

on a day I’m not here

the sky tracks on

tree grows in all directions

 

 

‘running loose below’

old intrepid, back from the tropics

communes with the great white phone

 

 

days off

where’s the goanna?

all of these colours, bark hiding

 

 

ding dong, hip hop

a tyrant’s dead, another reigns

fooled again, again

 

 

the blood moon

see the old man vanish

a rabbit from out of the hat

 

 

as far down as the tree grows

a song and a dance

old days buried down there

 

 

(found senryu)

in Wayne County, Michigan

the first centre line in the world

was inspired by a leaking milk wagon 

#2257 - the snake

 

2257

7.64

6.iii.26

the snake

 

turned out to be just another creature

frog in throat, lice mauled

eking out like the rest

 

quite unaware of symbolic value

nothing at all like the book had said

that was a pack of lies, unhelpful

 

it was only after we’d had the head off

fought to the finish

we discovered this

#2256 - a shared stillness (treaty now!)

 

2256

7.63

5.iii.26

a shared stillness

treaty now!

 

first thing in the morning

no words to say

 

and are we faster than a fire?

who set?

 

scrubby in the grey

all weather above

 

I try to do the ears

I fail

 

60,000 years of fear

is how we hop away

#2255 -- ambivalence

 

2255

7.62

4.iii.26

ambivalence

Tweedledee and Tweddledumber

 

one tyrant is dead

hip hip

 

the other tyrants still survive

 

one tyrant killed the other

 

aren’t they just as bad?

 

how will we measure?

 

an us of them

a them of us

 

ding dong

 

other tyrants watch on

 

will you mourn yours?

 

and the bomb that did it miss?

falls on the school

all the schoolgirls die

 

that was the terror headquarters

must have been

we say so

 

you can trust them

 

tomorrow it’s a hospital

 

everyone’s my enemy

every tyrant knows

 

manners of a monster

 

he was a nice old man

ordered the executions

 

avuncular up close

 

look at the list of what they defend –

freedom and a way of life

us from them

 

and they do too

 

don’t we need a strongman?

 

a tyrant has so many bombs

and guns and drones and songs

and bodies at disposal

 

one tyrant is dead

hip hip

ding dong

 

the other’s just as bad

as old as tired as narrow

 

all the world’s watching

don’t you know?

 

heigh ho!

 

one tyrant’s a terrorist

the other’s just dropping bomb

 

let’s see where they land

oh that was a hit

and that was a miss

 

the orphanage, the cabinet room

the mosque, the church, the temple

 

why can’t we get all the tyrants together?

have them slog it out in a padded cell

make it a spectator sport?

 

we could thumbs down them all

get the emperor feeling

 

what would that make us then?

 

no, but we’d make sure they don’t hurt each other

 

take them back to their rooms in the home

 

give them the pill

 

how it’s all a bad dream

how the world’s a bad dream

 

ding dong

hip hip

how tyranny reigns

 

why can’t we sleep it all off?