On guard for meteorite and alien
But not for this Black Swan within
Can’t trust the earth beneath our feet
Broken Japan, with you, we weep
Who gives a rat’s?!
“I’m desperate to get on the field”, says Benjii Marshall.
Oh, who cares?
“Hawkins hot engagement…”
Blah, blah fishpaste
“Triple M woos Matthew Johns”
Ho hum
“Brendan Fevola…..”
Yaaaawn
“O’Farrell promises to dump home buyer’s tax”
Zzzzzzzz
“The main island of Japan moved 2.4 meters in yesterday’s quake”
?? !
“Quake shifted earth on its axis by 10cm”
WHAT?!
On the 600km journey –
she looks at flowers and clouds,
he computes mileage per litre,
she ponders the secrets of cows,
he remarks that it might storm later…
She sees the wire-pig mailbox,
he spies a snake on the road,
he surveys flood-plain paddocks,
she wonders if cows talk in code…
He thinks perhaps ‘Box of Frogs’,
she’d prefer peace for a while,
both laugh at the travelling dogs,
their windblown ears and their smiles.
This perfection:
deep indigo of the blueberry,
saturated primaries of the King Parrot,
ochres painted by the setting sun,
is exquisite pain; I want its DNA,
to become the silence of the desert night,
whisper of quarks in the inky blackness,
nocturnal song of the African bush,
to inhale sensation of crushed silk,
embody cool water on skin,
synthesize oblivion of deep sleep.
But these are lambent shadows,
intangible ticklings
of some ancient sense –
when observed, they are gone.
But what about this man
who risked his life
to save the drowning?
Who will save him
from the haunting
of those he couldn’t?
She wanders not lonely as a cloud
but angry as a dust devil,
with judgement cloaked in blaming shroud
slowburn of anger, febrile.
What fate befell that sweet, sharp mind
now plagued with thoughts of violence
to spawn sensibilities so unsound
and increasingly mere silence?
What confounding ills did rear
this sullen, raging presence?
A once bright light, no longer here,
her love, an evanescence.
Storm ions mass,
stir up old injuries,
swelling cats’ paws,
silencing cockatoos mid-screech.
In the particle zoo,
darker the light
settles stillness unsettling
like a spine tingle…
Then
an electric spear is thrown,
punctures the tension.
Fat clouds, slow on the uptake,
grumble to rain
to wash it away.
posing as a bestie, but beware
for it is said
this creature is a beastie
Rent-a-husband is her game
and yours is in her sights
when darkness falls, she’ll come for him
so don’t go working nights
“Can you help me with my …”
(stick WHATEVER in the blank)
ain’t his boy scout skills she wants
Girlfriends, let’s be frank
With all-consuming envy
she’s competing for your life
she wants your house, the car you drive,
to replace you as his wife
So, good women everywhere,
keep friends you know are true
but guard against the frenemy
lest her prey is you
Reduce waste, improve service levels
I’m sailing down the Mekong
implement LEAN techniques
lilt of Mandarin in my ears
reduce bottlenecks, manage cash flows
building schools in Vietnam
forecast seasonality peaks
to the sound of children’s cheers
filming critters in the Galapagos
giant tortoise and marine iguana
orangutans in Borneo
and Amazonian flora and fauna
dining in the Shanghai Bund
cycling through rural China
catching Tokyo no kabuki-za
and jazz in a New York diner
capturing Northern winter snows
ancient men in Parisian alleys
icebergs in Antarctica
vineyards in Chilean valleys
Optimize
camping out on English moors
Streamline
for some creative brooding
Synchronize
writing that novel in my head
but right now work’s intruding!
With the ring back on your finger
you sighed and slipped away
but forever it’s a mystery
where you went that day
Did you see them watching you
and whispering in your ear?
When you took your final journey,
did you know that they were there?
Did you sense that we were not?
No-one can ever know,
yet child-like we still ask ourselves –
that day, where did you go?

Image via http://www.sxc.hu
You and me,
we’re no longer three,
am I cracked and fading, a sepia-coloured memory?
oceans divide us,
and the years…
but your mettle
burns vivid as the desert ochre,
and your voice
beats ancient through my heart
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