Look up

Love is looking up
Telling us always
Who to and where to go
Telling feet to point
In right direction
Or else stumble aside
It's the glorious view
From below that inspires
To keep going
Taking everyone with you
If eyes are glued
- Try it some time -
Wherever you look
Others look there too
So grateful to spy
A beautiful soul
Chin up to pinnacle
To show me how too

Last time

The last time I ever
Saw her face next to mine
My chilled fingers wiped
Warm tears from her eyes
Shed for another lost
Lover long ago
Sometimes it's shared losses
That waters new growth
If time lasts forever
We'd live in that moment
Rather than swimming
In thoughts of our own
Giving voice to our stories
Of long lost loved dears
On the seat right beside
Their bodies appear
While two are a couple
Absorbed in own world
A gaggle of lovers
Surround sound divide
So keep them in storage
Where they safely belong
Saved up for those moments
When long dates are done

Kaleidescope

Shape shifting countenance
Colours refracted over time
Telling me all I wish to hear
And yet only one line
Stands out from others
Unsolicited
Happy Solstice
How a mountain is revered
Upon holding a stone
Between my fingers
How tunnel vision
Peering through confetti
Glitter tattooed
Like spots appearing
After staring at the sun
When the view in front
Is clear and cool
As the wintry sky

Blue jumper

Queue a mile long
Take a number
Squeeze in front
Unprepared
Sending hugs
If you want one
A string of them
Woven into
Rainbow blanket
Embrace in case of
Feelings of isolation
Many more skeins
Held between
Two hands
Needing someone
To untangle
Loosen
Make sense of it
Never seeming
As handsome as
My favourite
Blue jumper
On you

Liminal spaces

Perched between barren landscapes 
Far as the eye squints
In the distance
Microscopic life dawns
In open spaces unseen
How we relish the resilience
Of some tiny show
Of leaves stalk reaching
Up for sunlight to ignite
It's open tongued grooves
Into being

Yet we find normalised eugenics
Those who exist between the lines
Of normativity collectivism
Turned aside by one
Derided by two
Abandoned by three
Many mouths to feed
Better defend protect
Turn inside out
Than let another
Take the mantle
When the woman till
Ten works then sleeps
A superior breed
To exist in such
Harsh remote conditions
Of isolation
Yet to grace the pages
Of top ten endemic list
For protection
Women and children
Survival of our species

Liquid love

A tale of modern peril
Our cup receives all
Gobstopper sized marbles
Stress weighs us all
Next fit the shiny
Glittery gems
The friends and family
Who never hem in
Sift through the cracks
The sensory spaces
Fine sand of stories
A treasure of faces
When life's limitations
Walls cold hard and thin
One love pours over
Holds everything in

Love like

A tidal wave
We all want to
Be bombarded
With love
Post-service
As desert rose
Where the dirt
Lapped up
Falling droplets
Thirst a daily
Familial ritual
Now I turn and see
The high tide mark
Since last week
And beg to breathe
Bloom and grow
Among kindness
Where gentle waters
Steep near
Woolly Tea Trees
By the creek
Quietly

The garden

Tucked away out of sight
Its secrets lay open
We stroll leisurely
Hopping over tendrils
Peeling back vines
Reminiscent year past
Time allows us
To laugh over
Misspoke words
Jealous greenery
We pause as sunbeams
Illuminate dainty
Cheeks of ripe peach
Silence grows
Like fruiting trees
The seed of many
More meetings
Served with humble pie
And cream
A future like this
Is dear to me
St David’s park, nipaluna / Hobart, lutruwita / Tasmania