Eons ago it seems
One night, two phones
Like bricks, dropped
On the grass
Beside the swings
Siren in me called
To the depths of soul
Blackest ink of night
On accused innocent shore
Marieville esplanade
Yachts silent witness
Lights in trees
Pulled back to reality
Grounded me with roots
Hundred years deep
A semblance of friendship
No matter how keen
Held the dear life
Within me
Life goes on
Without the one
You loved
Upon waking I realise
I am not ready for
The way the world
Presses in on me
From all sides
Until I spy
The spiral motion
Of living things
All around
I feel safe
At home
Taking my shell
Of security
Everywhere
With me
Curl once more
Adding up the numbers
Wins multiply behind me
Cast myself off
From the shore merrily
To begin another adventure
Between the tides
Generations carved from
Giant's causeway
Lava flow of war
Igneous rock hardens
Into a pathway across
Vast waters separated by
Continental drift
Forming political shores
Generations have traversed
To find a new life by boat
Now, since my birth
Family lines divided
By technology
Sounds beeps and static
Gave way new intelligence
New lightning fast
Ways of doing
Meanwhile, just being
For those who can recall
The differing bird calls
Sounds peeps and trills
Calling us out into
The vast wide world
To become new again
Some days it feels
Pain will never leave
Keep your eyes on horizon
Or where it should be
Farewell again, friend?
Light, dark, light again*
There is a natural state
Of justice in this world
Be it chance or fate
Or mere accident
I take my courage to say
Love is everywhere
Yet rare and precious too
A short glimpse of it
Builds bridges over ravines
Calms storms within
Eases rivers of tears
The salty sea understands
Vast unbounded loneliness
Despite surrounded by
Bountiful land
Fringed with company
Immersed in memories
Exuding calmest thought
Her placid shores
Lap at my feet
Spurring me on
He kept a fossilised shell
Plucked from highlands
Of Papua New Guinea
Proof of the flood, he mused
It remained on window sill
Overlooking rivulet
Tasmanian native garden
Decked with terracotta pot violets
Greeting me at the stairs
A huon pine drooped drearily
In the shade on the way
To wrought iron tables and chairs
I would finish the dishes from fossil shelled kitchen window
Spying the revelry outside
Before bringing tepid coffee from new machine
At Christmas time
All the while forgetting
To call my own family
A thousand miles away
Do not try,
Pipes chorus -
To compete,
It’s not a game,
Chides a waiter -
With the apple
Of her eye.
Devotion decades deep
While you are merely
A drop in her sea.
Constant, awash
A reed among kelp forest
Slowly disappearing
Taste of salt tears
Sweat of remembrance
Incomparable to the love
She plucked from tender
Young tree
Count the stars of heaven 