#250 - thinking of Melbourne in lockdown

                              

 

8.ix.20

250

for the dead city, south

thinking of Melbourne

 

blessings upon Saint Daniel

 

when we mask up

know it had to be someone

and thanks for taking the rap

 

we have Melbourne in mind

remember laneways

and the whole city coffee steaming

Adam Bandt we think always of you

 

that’s two prime ministers in the one poem

(a piece of legislation!)

 

We think about Ned Kelly hanging about

Melbourne, you were once the capital

think about dad in St Kilda before the war

Melbourne you’re a long time ago

and we still don’t know how to say Toorak

except for Skyhook

 

we think of Pru and Trude  

 

we had the bushfires too

how about the state of the garden?

 

all damn demon Trump, Bolsanaro, Duterte

but nothing breaks the spirit like

a spiky little virus on steroids

 

swab me silly

(no, rather not)

 

keep Melbourne in our mind’s eye   

thinking bliss of home worn through

not to mention the closest relations

 

slip into a solipsism

survive

 

could say we feel your pain

but actually have only inkling

there’s no walking the mile in these shoes

not even straighten the tie to go out

 

imagine soaring like a football

and wing it out of the stadium

in your dreams

there’s some physical distance!

 

I could say

we are breakneck down that curve with you

 

but this is a poem thinking of Melbourne

and not knowing what to say

#249 - shook writing

 

7.ix.20

249

shook writing

 

go there alone

to guess again

 

coax creature closer

inside self chip away

 

read closely

fall in

catch the signs

 

is it to swim we are down from the trees?

 

hide in a corner of the poem

 

hide things from myself in the dream

 

far in the time of where we are

 

comes light in the day up

all from in

 

from where once

now home again

 

take the track inside

 

unguent and gas leak  

because it’s said

and no one knows

 

all flow

often swim towards

a sea and say

 

big writing

least thoughts

 

endless revision

the shore in come to lines

and left

the edifice of night worn

 

inside the stream of the body

world too narrow for its fish

#248 - Yaminba Track

 

6.ix.20

248

Yaminba Track

 

in a Pilliga stillness

 

sandy and blackened

these caves

it won’t suffice to call them

 

but here we are

go round again

 

anyone can see this is sacred

it’s why bother building a church

you can see though a church is a little like this

 

here we see time’s toil

how it’s facing

 

cave light where the old fire’s kept

 

are we not sky struck

with this presence?

 

come here to scrape

and to sharpen, to sing

 

the chapel’s ceiling’s done out in maps

 

here’s a trailing off of limbs

and who?

 

grass trees stand like the wrong word here

so many sorts of bee come

white and full flowered

be within whiff or two

air honey

look down see ants carry

 

from here

see far

 

we are a trick of the light

soon gone

 

that roar like the sea

must be

below

see far from

I call the forest forever

 

that roar like a train

must be the road

 

go round

 

 

come in awe

leave nothing

 

aren’t we turning to stone

returning?

 

the guardians of all this time

how are they not still here?

#247 - at Pilliga Pottery

 

5.ix.20

247

at Pilliga Pottery

 

 

bush strung along, stringy

parrots to bright

and hear the unseen!

 

notice the lean to things here

an all-time meander

 

road rooted literally

as they say

or could be the dream stuck snake

watch out

 

be captured in the landscape

see through the day again

 

plentiful parrots

hat gone in a knock off breeze

 

to far fetch wild among the flowers

come to the cave where the old ones still are

 

everywhere signatures

there are no signs

 

wattle up Spring

fence is leaning away

 

all things lean here

the fence is only joining in

 

the thousand year fire

still glows in the bark

 

musing drift

midst of much

scrubby because

a kind of burnt magic

 

see randomness of purpose  

one tree to catch another

 

so many ants

and most below notice

 

falling and fallen

storms to still

nights and you won’t believe

rain

 

green ripples in the wheat

I think there must have been a sea once

 

turds of the trail too, tell

echidna curl up

 

branch to bare branch

a flock and chatter in to cliffs

 

buzz across too - who was that?

on trudge

rattle of the track

like someone behind

that has to be me

 

in time a sandstone tumble is mossed

 

bring many hands to the turning

 

it’s a kettle slow country watched

 

less than the light caught us here 

#246 -- in a silence made of wonder

 

4.ix.20

246

in a silence made of wonder

 

cloud seen

come go

 

here we are

touch

 

and the roundness again

 

orb over

surface spun out

wink

 

not a stillness

anywhere ever

 

gone moon, stars

in the turning

and far

 

all up with the rain

and this is time’s passage

 

things look like a clock

but are not

 

hand over

sense over sense

all intuit

 

it’s where day went

 

come drip

round moment so

that’s where we wonder

hush, dry

dim and lit

 

how is a part of the puzzle missing?

is there a question at all?

but just now…

 

gone!

all the tree up

 

distraction is these wheels themselves

take to the track, climb

never catch

 

breath of this world

is mine

where

the roundness comes

round again

                                              

#245 - anybeast's dreamzoo

3.ix.20

245

anybeast’s dreamzoo

 

an all-in savannah

with jungle edge

desert too

 

where do the lip thing

throw voices

wallow

 

a dizzy stillness

fenced in out

tongue twirl

splay to daisy up

 

digestion!

to be entertained

where nothing to hunt

and no one comes after

idle

tight mane

 

sack of bones bending

an attitude of ear fling

 

damn that shoulder twitch

 

walk with them past the paddock

two legs with shovels go

 

little treehops

tail up chasings

chest white shown standing

do a scented rub

 

is my stream golden?

 

take a turn as a stone and warm up

 

no one to run from

nobody hides

 

loll

self cast shade  

my limber up, rust

go on parade

 

one ate a little

too much all these days

though only what they let

 

the echo growl sets off galahs

over under wire and went

 

later perhaps, if you like, we may fuck

though it’s useless

still there is time to foretell

do you read us?

 

need the wild for passion

 

these are sounds you yourself might have made

 

unbelievable sadness

 they do not call it that though

 

without death

just these natural causes

cannot say that’s life

 

often in a library hush

trick time just to be 

 

#244 - meerkats

 

2.ix.20

244

meerkats

 

into each other curl

half sun half shade

digesting day

 

stare up

and stand survey

the trap

 

its far beyond

and nose to glass

whimper, striped

 

like the tiger

later, then frenzy

a pellet, bark

 

hunt sniff

tail up

gambol and hop

 

crawl in a log, out

dig forepaws

wrestle the sunshine

 

but not for us

none of this joy

is performed