seasonally
they return to the south
our Australian Parrots
to fly above us
on intermittent show
celebrate September springtime
with feasts of fresh pine nuts
in Conifer treetops
take water
from recent winter rains
then preen
mate
and nest
then with familial dawn song
remind us of incumbency
evolutionary longevity
and ownership
before flight beckons

as if to brag

First published at ‘Plum Tree Tavern’
February 2020
https://theplumtreetavern.blogspot.com/2020/02/kingdom.html

I remember this place
Before the rain
The ruddy red brown
Of that dusty plain
But witness it now
That the rain has come
In the shapelier state
Of that lonesome gum

The river dry
With its sandy bed
Like an empty vein
That’s been cut and bled
Is now running fast
And filled to the brink
But to its desert home
It will flow and sink

Many times now
I’ve seen this occur
In the heaviest wet
When things are a blur
To those dry summer days
‘Neath the hot centre sun
When the shadows are tall
And the burning is done

First published in “Barking Dogs”, from
The Writers For Radio Project, Alice Springs 1995

said nothing
already over committed
to us
dripped
exclusively
in essential refinement
over dinner
and leering glances
bottled
as an exotic perfume
glassed as if crystal
but quiet as silk
didn’t need to say a word

that entire night

Published by Pomme Journal in
“Put Into Words, My Love” 2020
https://pommejournal.com/store

when we were seated
there was you
and
sedimentary timelessness
with a wash of luminosity
whispered accord
and approving glances
as at
the arrival of
electric lamp light
on ancient streets
at the corners of our ancestry
and i believed thereafter
you and i belonged
as if in a tapestry
synthesized metaphysically
framed indestructibly
and
it has lasted
in framed
memorized
tuned heartbeat
and shall do
        forever

First published in “Love Story Volume 1”
by Elephant House Press, 2019

There’s nothing here
That wasn’t here
A thousand years ago …
Except a seed
That was a tree
Though time has seen
It come and go
And flowers there
On which our eyes
Can feast for just awhile.
But we could walk for time at length
And still have covered
Nothing more
Than just a mile
In this great land,
Where another race
Of people stand,
And still marvel at it all.

First published in “Barking Dogs”, from
The Writers For Radio Project, Alice Springs 1995

in this outer suburb,
times are ungenerous -
a struggling main street
business community
competing for custom,
but we get to our local
weekly
where publican Dave
talks up regulars
who make trade viable

in conversation
i learn of those
obsequious
inner suburbanites
wanting to impress friends
with bulk bookings
unsuited to this establishment

Dave can’t cater
for larger groups
and those phone calls, he says,
never end well

when i leave that welcoming,
warm open fire, mid-afternoon,
two neo-moderns enter
and request,
a lemonade & raspberry
and a pineapple juice

tough times, surely

First published in “Platinum Poems Anthology”,
20th Anniversary of ‘Frances’, 2019.