Once laid bare
Gentle fronds
Wave in the air
Alluring to birds
Bees and minibeasts
Time is short
To share delights
Breathe in
Heady scents
Of summer

Once laid bare
Gentle fronds
Wave in the air
Alluring to birds
Bees and minibeasts
Time is short
To share delights
Breathe in
Heady scents
Of summer

The ingredients for a good lover
By Frida Kahlo

Sweetest scent
Evoked from most
Pungent stench
Of the earth
Take note

Tell tales of far off lands
Highest heights
Ravenous lowlands
Vying for a taste of skin
Flying, gliding, whip of wind
Nestled in the cove of calm
Gentle word to do no harm

Wholly unbroken
The line between the time
You told me all your stories
To now
I write them out
Though not mine to tell
Story keeper, holding closely
Treasuring artwork on cigarette packets
In New Orleans
Erecting tents on byways of Canada
Evading bears
A sense of place is important
Venturing out beyond all civilisation
Loved ones' names in acknowledgements
On all the field papers
I fade and fall rather than reach for such stardom
The earth and all its impact
Wakes me from timestamped memories
With beers in gaudy bars
Canadian moosehead overlooking
That look, watching waiting, startled -
Only to flee into the wilderness again

Fringe of highways
Byways iridescent green
Shrouded in bird twits
Pinging through drone
Of rubber on road
So too, contentment
Seeps into my bones
Like a syncopated spring
Soaking of rain
I glow
Quirky quips, tips and flirts
Bounce from my lips
I know
There is only one
Way to go

If every economist
Fell in love with
An ecologist
Gave birth to
A humanist
What a place
This would be

Well may we adore
An open book
A bird's song
A flower in spring
More than anything
To find a love
Where hope's restored
Is worth well more
Than all above

The brink of daylight
Sounds emanate to arouse
Stirrings of the heart

