Replay: A Snap Poem from 2006

I am open to
suggestion, free
in a life of
comfort and choices,

my children so
secure and active,
villains locked away
in the jug, silenced

forever. I am
a strong breeze, filling
sails of laughter
and life --

a rainbow around
the sun, a white gum
by the river
as it shimmers

in response. I delight
in taking pleasure.
I hear the city
whispering and see
the ocean lapping.

Hope and Sandals (revised)

shuffling yours and hours
you come to a sudden cliff
hot autumn winds make nerves
jumpy and skin erupt

take the easy way out
and lie down or
walk to the letterbox
in hope and sandals

today's snail dries out
in the letterbox oven as
the driveway burns your feet
no news or cheques

no matter tonight
is the third episode of
that gangland series
just the ticket to

take your mind off

In Hope and Sandals

shuffling yours and hours
you come to a sudden cliff
hot autumn winds make nerves
jumpy and skin erupt

take the easy way out
and lie down or
walk to the letterbox
in hope and sandals

today's snail has dried out
and the letterbox yawns
as the driveway burns your feet
no news or cheques

no matter tonight
is the third episode of
that gangland series
just the ticket

pitched passed grief
days are marked off
as liquidity balances
book after book

Snap: This Land In Time

'How quietly time collapses in a poem.'
Yannis Ritsos


the land lies silent
under foot under hoof
under wheel

this land scarred
by English terms
of management

barbed-wire fences
roads
open-cut mines

its people lost
in a culture so
foreign

south/north (snap)

last week, the city –
barrista beauty in a black beret
berry-red lips long black eyelashes
highlighting
deep dark clear eyes

at Planet Books
faux-Left Bank bohemians
man black beret goatee
girl brim turned-up all around black hat
brilliant red lips long black eyelashes

this week, up North
steamy air before The Wet
a single white cockatoo squaw-
king on a leafless gum
high as a cloud

black crow surfing
a dark bark bough
limegreen leaves waving as wind
blows moist and heavy

blackfella children
hatless shoeless shirtless
eating meat raw

lightning backlights the trees
thunder rumbles on the horizon
pressure-cooker sky

we sit on camp chairs
discussing war and mental health

Wednesday's 'Snap': Ngallagunda Girl

It being Wednesday, I wrote a short 'snap' poem for PoetryEtc, a poetry list I'm on. So on my way to school that morning (taking the long way because of all the snake tracks heading into the bush near our shortcut) I saw a local girl of indeterminable age dancing on the road by herself, and watching to one side her shadow, checking to see she had the movements just right ... I wrote this as my 'snap' for this week.

Ngallagunda girl dances
seven years old
thin black body
silhouetted on
pindan dirt

Ngallagunda girl dances
songless and alone
head cocked left
watching her
undulating shadow
to get it right
to move like Mum

Ngallagunda girl dances
as little brother
plays muster
in the dirt where
king browns mated
under a full moon
their tracks
lyrical in the sun