We are not a muse

Can I see one more time
Says the bee to belle
Taking temperature tells
It is not this hot in May
Ask simply
How can one live
Without the glimpse
Of her inner world
There is nothing at all
For a muse to do
But be oneself
Share but a small
Dose of delight
An open veil
When she trails
With my thoughts
Tailing behind
As I watch
Looking up
For once
In my life
Epacris impressa

Photo credit: Emma Haynes

The undoing

Bowl of red roses
One thorn
Field of clover
One bee
Picnic in grove
One ant
Sleeping dogs lie
One flea

Magnanimous reply
One word
Deep belly sigh
One spurn
Long tanned thigh
One burn

One yearns to turn
A blind eye
To all the ones
That lead to our
Undoing
If we erase
One line
How delightful
It would be

Paring down
All nature's will
To living without
One penetrating
Sting
Would deprive us
Of so many
Beautiful things

Dance till we drop

One by one 
Memories come
As first drops lightly
Before a lavishing

At once dissipating
On parched broken land
Then blanket covering
Moving sun's dwelling
Into hiding

Between them both
Daylight quench thirst
One without the other
No dancing dresses
Come out

Parched tongues dip
Into warm clear springs
Going underground
To yield every colour
Known to the eye

Above and below
Bed of growth
Light touch sows
Till sun retires
Dewdrop gathers
For next bow
In the sky
Dianella tasmanica Tasmanian flax lily. Rosny, lutruwita / Tasmania.

Love crush

Think you're flying free
But really, attached
Grounded
Just learning
To spread wings

Until when
One touch
Caving in
Any thought
Of leaving
Ends

Instead sowing seeds
Raising up anew
In case we meet
Again
Caleana Major – large flying duck orchid. Kingston lutruwita / Tasmania.

Starling

A flighty little meeting
Sitting in the eaves
Between two blush breasted
Birds tending nests
Pip the willow wicks
Between their beaks
Stripped ready for next
Round of eggs to brood

Starling, like me
Cannot live alone
Dedicated to keeping
Warm prickled skin
As feathers come in
Giving out always
Longing to take warmth
Within

Can I call you?
Darling, dear?
Babe, beautiful one
Eyes like heavens above
Always mothering
Pieces of me changed
Blood runs through forever
Changed by love
Looking through mirror
Can you see
Scars formed catching
Those fallen from nest
Now they are free
So are we

Our mirror world

In stone quiet hours
Retreat to cosy corners
As real as anything
That happened in
The liquid light
Smallest words powerful
Take over all evidence
To the contrary
Beggars become pleasers
Rigid made into teasers
Doors as hard as
Bruised knuckles
Swing open
With a breath
Sand between toes
Curling fingers glow
A wet coat smell
Pervades with a kiss
The salty taste
Lingers longer
Than the night
As we curl
Like a shell
And miss
Image credit: Suzy Manigian

Naming day

All along swollen banks
Branches laden with seeds
Heavy from drenching
Rain flooding under feet

An intricate beauty
Calls you to attention
Saying, 'look at me!'
Brushing away dark grey

Standing on her shoulders
Not knowing what to call
Each delight before me
Like a mother she whispers
Call it love

A pink garden variety
Lands on my bedside
Table, couch beside
Picked by hands called love

Machines flooding
House of high tide afloat
Evidence of daily life
To keep warm bodies

Queues of words
Responded in kind
Bring down softly
Tears for fears

Pictures fill the mind
From near, afar, not yet
Teaching me to just be
Naming the days

Abandoning that which
Does not nurture
Grow or teach me
Feed will to love daily
For us