LAKE MOON by Murray Jennings

I have no idea what bird that is
which scuds, a silhouette
along the silver-pink surface.
You need to hear a call,
but it’s early night,
and they don’t..

It’s not a lake.
There’s been more rain than usual,
but the grasses and reeds, the marshes
have held it back in the creek
from the valley where perfect people
spend their weekends
while someone else scrapes
the barnacles from their boats
and vacuums their suburban driveways.

There will be complaints
but for me, nothing
taints this,
a lake moon,

a winter silence,
a shack roof needing nails,
rent to pay soon.

© Murray Jennings


"This poem crawled out of a novel I’m writing. It’s only slightly different from the protagonist’s soliloquy. A recently retired widower, he’s exiled himself to a remote, rundown old horse property, south of the city of Perth, Western Australia. The block borders on a swamp, part of a wetlands network which attracts a variety of migratory birds." Murray Jennings

Murray is the author of 'FLASH COMPANY - Poems and fictions', available from the following stockists:
Lane Books, Old Theatre Lane Claremont W.A.
Millpoint Caffe Bookshop, Mill Point Rd, South Perth W.A.
Planet Books, Beaufort St, Mt Lawley W.A.
Galileo Books, York, W.A.
IMPRINTS, Hindley St, Adelaide, S.A.
(RRP $19.00)
Or by mail from P.O. Box 460, COMO, W.A. 6152
($21.00)