Homes
Mangrove river tangled
crabby life scuttling
dark homes in greasy mud
egret stands silent
sentry in crocodile shadows
two moons on rippled water
concentric illusions
of home.
Yet chalky lighthouse beckons Firth of Clyde flickers womb-entangled country welcomes with uncanny ease molecules mesh in ambivalent blood music, mountains, companions connect memories in purple heather home
Echoes of childhood rain on weatherboard nostalgic hens scatter nectarine tree shades cubbies in cicada-throbbing bush fill empty careless days migrant parents claw from alien soil home
Through albums roam lives in warm embers illuminated mud walls guinea fowl panicked by pronking alpacas take fright and flight to the Morten Bay Fig Grandpa’s ashes buried beneath warm earth tear-stained bruised river flows through rock unbroken home.
On Indian Ocean black swan lullaby laps the soul through peppermint trees I carry suitcase, my cup of tea unpack family, friends, new grandson ravels my heart in milky hands waves on blood red sands sun sinks below western sea home.
Astride salt pan desert salt tears flow pale spinifex points to eastern forests clouds feed furious waters mosquitos mud mould two moons reflect mangrove river calls me home.
Emotions maimed
war-tattered souls
reach
emaciated shore
alive
seeking comfort
companionship
finding neither
difference excludes.
Amused
You twist their eyes
and mouths you twist
but not their hearts
you twist their words
clever to avoid
eyes that draw
a place where pain is
where heart must twist with heart
and love they do
and laugh
but soon the joke is empty
and hungry
they drift away.
Your tiny head large
on body curled
a bud
waiting to flower
your tiny hand
devastating in perfection
reaches
already impatient
to grasp life
beyond black and white
womb images
three strings of pearls
drift in and out of focus
exquisite vertebral beauty
glowing
rib filaments form
fragile cage
sheltering beating heart.
