Apparition

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
Burning the fears, Dark Mofo, Hobart Tasmania

Passenger

In all my sweet thoughts
Of riding shotgun
Words caught on tongue
Music at your fingertips

Where shall we go from here?
To the coast, surely?
The mountains, sublime
Some cabin where we can hide

Gather imaginary adventures
Cast them on the wind
Like a flock of shorebirds
Headed to the North Pole

The only passenger, am I
Is one of time
We have journeyed years
Apart, words odometer of miles
Sunrise sky over Bruny Island Tasmania

B flat blues

Birthday blues
comes after you
The coldest day
with longest night

Soft blue sky
won't clear the air
of sullen gloom
When loved ones are
so far and few

To those so close
A silent toast
Poignant message
Like a ghost

The fault to bear
Is mine to groan
For, I'd rather spend
This day alone

But when I do
A quiet knock
Of heart does wonder
Where all went?

Then, blink of eye
The day is spent!
Sunrise at Bellerive on midwinter’s day

Milk Fever

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

Nut butter

The days march onwards - like Grieg - with a drumroll at every turn.

Tears sit on my windowsill each evening before I close the blinds.

Journeying dreams collect like dust at my feet as I step into a new day.

Hands reach for yours, held softly, no mincing words.

Lips kiss yours fully, completely, until the toast pops and jug boils.

Take a bite into peanut buttered reality, the grist of it is chewy.
Winter sunrise at St David’s Park, Hobart Tasmania

In the quiet hours

In the quiet hours
Relieved, I reminisce
The times when silence
Were sparse and few

In the quiet hours
Clarity falls like dew
Eyes open, dreams renew
Wishes cast seeds afar

In the quiet hours
Words echo in chambers
Of heart, once a stranger
Now mine to choose love

In the quiet hours
Fears are laid waste
Happy endings hesitate
In favour of new beginning
Eastern Spinebill, Bruny Island Tasmania

Descent

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
Jetty Beach, Bruny Island Tasmania

Unwritten

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