I saw a droplet
clear as a crystal bead
tremble in your eye
when I told you I was leaving.

It dropped like an arrow,
shattered my heart
like splintered glass -
how could I leave you now?

Little black vests
pegged to the powerlines,
they hang like witches' laundry
against the sooty sky.

~

Three drifting notes
on a liquid sheet
score music for my soul.

~

Winter's Night 

Eternal star splendour waits
above the ocean’s swell,
patient waters,
bathing dark rocks.

You are the winter night.
In your breath is unrest and
ultimate death.

~

                     Flores

I am but petals, fallen from this
red red rose, small.  Dust, dust and
petals, blown in the wind:  tomorrow
and alone, pierced through the shroud
and I remember . . . . . .

Without you, I am but petals.  Small
red petals of dust, blown about by the wind;
like all things that linger.

~

There are spelikins among us
who, for a quick buck
would veil the colour
that stands out in the fog.

Bright images trashed
in media of contempt;
one by one our heroes tumble
in the plain light of day.

~

With infuriating insolence,
next-door's leggy grapevine
scaled her fence,
shinned her drainpipe,
and stared rudely down on her
garden of gray pavers.

~

What We Can Learn From Black Sheep

~

Autumn Shades

Leaves turning,  crisp cool mornings,
parklands draped with red and gold.
Foliage mantilla morphs to a carpet,
Koel is silent, the honeyeater gone
Autumn is gently drawing its curtain,
declaring an ending to summer once more.

~

Release

From confinement  to
incredible freedom
and delight.

This  -  this is life. 

So new to this world,
too young to know a threat.

How quickly
death is calling you. 

~

Unaware

Leafless 

 trees weep

 unaware of
coming
 spring.

~

Blue

Paint me in dull flat colours today
Grey, like the pre-rain sky.

Use a wide brush, and work
with long, torpid strokes.

Have the light fall outside
the frame, casting long shadows.

Hang me in a dark corner, and go,
quietly, leaving the door ajar.

~

Moon Shine

Tonight I kissed the surface of the moon-
in the palm of my hand I held it.
Tonight, the craters were made
by my fingertips
and old footsteps
were whispered
away
with my
breath.

~

The Last Thing I Saw

The blue-ringed octopus
Rests in my palm:
A golf ball of poison...
So beautiful.

~

Rosella

Swiftly it flashes, a palette of colour,
Softly alights on callistemon bough,
Carelessly sips of the bountiful nectar,
Beautiful rainbow beside a red flower.
Silently watching, a furry grey hunter,
Stealthily creeps to the blossoming bough,
Stretches its paw with a deadly intention
.. . .
Still, ruffled rainbow beneath a red flower.

~

Art Deco

Acute angles of roofline
thrown against shadowed sky,
neon signs overlap
bare branches, rusted iron -
angle on arc on cube,
a ziggurat of cityscape
seen through mirror glass,
through a pane, lightly.

~

Crows

Crows strut, in glossy black,
Proprietorial;
Retirement village undertakers:
Superior, satisfied -
Future carrion assured.

~

Comfort

Tossing and turning
thoughts stream in the chill of night,
until your warm dream filled breath
soothes and penetrates my sleepless back,
entering my heart,
reminding me of the start,
that blew so hot,
burning still, a slow soulful flame.

~

Crows & Haiku

crows caw in the wind
to interrupt my flawed dreams:

from the battle ground
a crow watches -- in one-eyed
anticipation
crows eye a gibbet
with its noose of hempen rope:
one down, two to go

~

quinta essentia

mostly marching across the surface with
singular moments of being of it, in it
meagre encounters with magnanimity
when the soul stretches leisurely over skin
and consciously subsides
irredeemable by desire
never forgotten as markers of evolution

~

The Naked Heart

bare and unadorned

truth finds its place
within the heart
where secrets are not judged
and light abides

entwined with dark

~

                  Timeless

Too soon, the childish laughter
and the simple tears have gone

Too soon, have I packed away in boxes
butcher paper drawings - yellowed and crisp

Too soon, has the tiny package I once held
become a woman - articulate, capable and loving

She is all that I hoped
and yet, sometimes, it seems too soon

~

Home

Home
once more,
open door,
arms flung wide, smiles,
welcoming prodigal son back
with joy.

~

The Big OE

 I cried when they left, I couldn't help it.
The tears just leaked out of my eyes and down my face,
just like the love I have for my son that seeps out of my voice
when I speak of him with pride and love.

They had to go of course, it was inevitable.
Although occasionally when I see a family
relating with unmeasured and with careless love
I feel sadness too deep to contemplate.

~

Little Icarus 

Icarus ignored his dad
Wondering why things turned out bad,
Dad had said, 'Fly down not up.'
But Icarus was a know-all pup.
So up above the sky so blue
Little Ic. he flew and flew,
Until his waxen wings they melted
And into the down-below he belted.

~