Flight of the butterfly

Similarities are endless
The only colourful one
Takes to the mountains
At Christmas time
Dances in the sunlight
Show of flit and wit
Across the sky
Then disappears before your eyes
Waiting all year long
To catch a glimpse of wing tips like blue eyes
So it is, with you and I
Macleay’s Swallowtail at Mt Field National Park

Herbarium

For nigh on a decade
Enchanted by tales
Of wildest places
Where rough edges
Bleed out to sea
Coarsing through veins
Lungs of the world
Clutching the land
For all its worth
From those who take, take..

I trip tentatively
Through swathes of natives
Unknowingly trampling
Rare plants
Smudging invasive seed
Into mud with sodden tread

No permission to collect
I take and take, greedily
Hoping vainly
To strike a fragile quill
A tendril root, a mere bud
To bring home all I love

But instead, I raised beds
Of shrunken dried specimens
Memories snipped from whence they came
Never to grow again.
Now I learn and dissect
Identify how similar or different
The naming of all things
Already taken place
A namesake now only left
For stone engraving.
Cremorne Hill, South Arm, Tasmania

Hope awakens

Light and gentle movement
Stretch and bolster vitality
Sending hope waves through the brain.
Invitations to Sunday afternoon
Drives winding through rainforest
Sunlight dapples breath taking
To a hotel nestled in gentle folds
Of ancient mountain.
Return to oneself.
Bathe in possibility lain broken.
Dare not feed the narrative of turbulent deep dreams
Though if disturbed by slumber's provocative story telling
Hope awakens with bird song daily
Dreams escaped
To a reality which is perhaps dull in comparison.
Morning snow at Mount Field National Park Tasmania

Love grows

Trembling knees, wringing hands
Short of speech, time demands
Nervous smile, staring gaze
Waking in a temporal haze

Awe of vast firmament
Cloudless starstruck night in tent
Firmly does the body know
Love of wild ancient lands does grow
Lake Seal Lookout, tarn shelf, Mt Field National Park Tasmania

Cancel cure

Trials and fails of fiction 
Matches made in low-lit bars,cafe's and gas stations.
Shake off sticky cling of connection plagued by interference.
The Editor stands looming over head.
Hiding in some alpine cloud or cave under ridgeline.
Heavy pen pressed to storyline.
Poised, ready to edit me out of one's life.
The Snowgum Trail, Tarn Shelf, Mount Field National Park in Tasmania

Stories untold

Hesitant is a friend until the next wave of my wandering.
Stories untold how to salvage after the fire consumes everything
End is not always loss when so much worth was claimed.
Happenstance turned us both down left and right field of remembrance.
Standing at opposite sides of the will, wake up to all the things you said.
Let it blaze inside the mind for a wishful younger self.
Spurn at the thought of marked embrace, that leftover sweet touch of soft centre pending.
Goodenia lanata, trailing native primrose. Hobart Domain grasslands.

I wish I knew you then

When your hope was without end
Your smile could light the sky
Your love never ran dry

I wish I knew you when
Passion put your thoughts to pen
Ink ran free, exploring edges
Of wilderness ne'er seen

I'd dream to hold the hand
This wishful young woman
Full of wisdom and insight
Not anticipating ache

Even more than this
I long to hold the kiss
And the gaze that beheld
A life lived wild and free

Yes, more than any thing
A sunny coast retreat
A quick retirement
Just me and the breeze

Yes, more than this
I just wish I knew you now

How to make cake

I sifted through the mound 
of lightly tinkered implements, ornaments, embellishments.
Curious to comb fingers through light whisps of cotton candy hair stirring on breath.
Trice eyes met.
Chattels of connection melt in the swelter of touch.
Bonds of time fling affairs out of space.
In no ritual way
I swallow words as readily as lemon tarts.
One hundred ways to say
I am yours
Though never mind
The crumbling gateau of cream filled sublime.