This isn’t a real forest, real forests have squirrels; Mushrooms and oaks and elms and skunks; Sinister ivy, laughing creeks, and pensive shadowy nooks. This isn’t a forest; there’s too many possums; Too many wallabies and lizards and parrots; Feral cats, lost rubbish, signposts and wombat poo. This isn’t a forest: the air’s too bright, [...]
It only shows in a sigh, a slump, A little tiny shoulder curve: And I know the day has curdled. A puckering twist, a bug in a salad; A cringe from a misplaced word; And I have soured the afternoon, I have flattened the world. The ruination of all things, I am the contaminant, In [...]
Until the afternoon she died, In still suburban quiet, schoolbus sounds, Surrounded by the lace and sunset light Of her spare bedroom; I visited. I walked from school each day, arrived to a tired team of uncles and cousins, aunts and parents, working shifts To keep her warm and safe and calm. I arrived and [...]
Stack my books around me until they tumble over; Fill me up with tea and honey, pad me up with clover: Soak me in late-afternoon sunshine pleasure And let me escape into infinite leisure. I will pretend for just one more half-hour That I am not troubled by the people up in power: By the [...]
The last bee of the summer stung me: I swelled and cursed and ached. The last bee ever to sting stung me: Though my own stupid mistake. Sunning on the grass, asprawl, I rolled onto the bumbling bug: Stung through no choice at all, It died annoyed: no grave was dug. The last bee ever [...]
The pink and purple wolves that bay for the weirdest blood are out in packs tonight. Stirred by sparkles and spurred by bling, driven by drinks with berries, they stalk on predatory toes and sneer at the fluorescent moon. They clink and giggle and shriek, yet move almost unseen; blurring into the background scene giggling [...]
As though unstructured, as though momentum abates, I flail and puzzle over what to do next; What shall I make happen, now I’ve made so much? What direction should I push things to make more sense of the baffling injustices, of the goals unattained, of the futility of raging, railing against the rain. I’m sitting [...]
Heroes lost to all, heroes lost to me: I’ll never be a cowboy, cow-crossing the restless prairie. I’ll never be an alchemist or adviser in the court, These are roles forever gone, these are arts no longer sought. I won’t find myself a blacksmith, a falconer or lord, There are no pirates to pursue or [...]
Carried from the car, Soft and loosely dangling, Lost in trusting sleep. Go warm and easy, Deep into the dreaming world And wake tomorrow.
I. What glory they have known, what triumph: What marvellous figures have gone before. I am worshipful, I am humbled; I am inspired to seek, chase, glory more. I will scale the lofty heights! I will seek the stars divine! These preceding heroes will welcome me When I claim the victory that shall be mine! [...]
