When you let go - that little bird Into the wild, unrelenting sky One must be willing to never see her again To be free means no burden of expectation
They say, there are other birds in the sky The blackened birds that awaken me each morn Alight upon suburban fenceline Sing their well-known song
There is no one like the one you so loved Love tended and fed, doted upon The one who recognised your voice as you arrived Felt the silence once gone Until the caged perch to which it clung Felt nothing like love at all
Daily grind is right Darkness falls and rises Out of percolator Into belly stuck on ache Work tracks play repeat Commute, beat wild heat Rising to neck ignored Cool all the way home.
A rinse cycle of aqua Barely cleanses racing Rabbit thoughts chased By greyhounds the second Head hits pillow Worst-case first out the gate.
All my defences lie In gentle apparition Hovers above me Her curls fall on face Limbs wriggle Flashes of teeth, eyes Giggles, legs, hands, waist.
As long as she's alive Hope thrives disparagingly Mocking my love life-raft Drops of memory Onto tongue like a hack Apothecary of mind Brain cells a bee hive Craving honey
A mother's breast turns Feeding the only release Lest she weep in tune with child
How long will it last? Interminable desire To hold fast the nest In contrast to view ahead
So wild sea eagles Soar solo surveying over Rocky shores, pebbles trickle Vast dolomite column cliffs Veering skyward - eyeing one another
Young ones too large for nest I run errands to tick of time Care package a respite For a friend whom I like Caring for other than bloodline
Though I forgot the soy milk Now it's all I can drink The taste of it like a chance meeting Next time I will say the words Until then, thoughts brew Like a heady spiced chai While tea turns tepid At least, the sun and I.
Quiet Corner, Adventure Bay, Bruny Island Tasmania
We descend upon oval of scattered sunlight As if fistfuls of diamonds strewn onto bay Blinking back at us Squinting into perpetual horizon Butterfly shells lain on trail along shoreline Lapping frothy edge of greedy sea, clutching Tumbling ripples moulded in sand Careless gums shed layers Strewn about like discarded dresses on stage Leafy mops nodding heady on ocean air Glittery path meets tentative toes Kelp gulls call As a muse, eye of longing To tread naked and wanting, swallowed whole Bodacious curves held alight by restless tide Fondle of chill sting, burn, then numbness sets in Retreat up winding course a captive to comforts Imprint of this place Jetty Beach, held more deeply in thick skin than acetone on paper print Seeds of dreams planted deep inside Named will to come alive
Months measured in countdowns Deadlines, edits, launch What life might be as an author All novel ideas float On whimsical breeze Over my head Into another's ears Genre's, titles and characters Dance in my dreams Yet, eternally poised pen Drips ink of lament A few mere chapters in Our life narrative The story of us remains Unwritten
Count the stars of heaven 