Two Haiku

School Road running
eagle’s shadow carries me
above the hills

I write poems
on the vanishing road
evening creeps ahead

1982

It’s 1982 and my dad is watering the lawn

and we’ve had the carport built in,

it’s called the sunroom now and mum buys a second tv

black and white and my sister watches

the world’s richest game show which is also on the

tv in the lounge and my sister calls out

to ask the colour when the car comes on at the end

there are two channels, channel 2 and TVT 6

channel two is play school sesame street

the curiosity show doctor who dr snuggles

and a psychedelic musical filler called the butterfly ball

TVT 6 is sons and daughters days of our lives

the cosby show Judith Sweet and ads

TVT 6 is Fat Cat and Friends and when the music plays

it’s time to get your mum and dad

TVT 6 is Land of the Giants on Saturday arvo

and cricket all summer so you just play outside

but if the test finishes early they play reruns

which are the best the love boat exciting and new

both stations are the news we watch tom payne
at bedtime Rupert Bunny says to all little children good night

Dromana Return

Night

1.

waiter gives

you mine

me yours

you like sweet

I prefer dry

2.

Moscato

late sun, honey

3.

manchego quince paste

slow pork coriander,

pineapple chilli lime

local corn chargrilled

one scallop stinging nettles

flat bread house made

4.

chocolate

churros

one plate

sharing

5.

sunset

hashtag

nofilter

6.

late night

walk home

kids still

wide awake

Day

1.

by the handful

Avery returns

the beach

to the sea

2.

Una bets

she can walk

without leaving

footprints

runs lightly

on the sand

footprints

keep up

3.

buckets

spades

striped umbrellas

apple core

sunscreen

4.

tide comes in

footprints

disappear

5.

Avery clings

to your back

girls learn

to surf the waves

only I

don’t swim

Frankston Line

Short, bald, patient man answers his phone

‘Hi Mum’

and something about a parcel that hasn’t arrived,

and his brother gets on the line.

The man on the phone keeps using his name.

‘How are you, George?’

‘How’s Mildura, George?’

‘Take good care now.

Are you taking care,

George?’

Mordiallic Lapidary Club, beginners welcome

Across the aisle is a man in a light grey suit

too short at the cuffs

too high at the ankles,

showing smooth black wrists

brown beige camel argyle socks

Cal bungs, pine trees

Blackberry, Android, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone

Kindle, iPad, Time magazine.

A man stands for a woman close to tears

grey hair scraped back,

she clutches her carkeys, digs inside her embroidered bag,

dials, loses the signal and dials and dials again.

Every time he answers,

the phone cuts out.

‘Thank God, someone gave me a seat,’

she says finally

into the phone.

‘But I’ll be all right.’

Edithvale Hairven Cloverleaf Lumen Lights Olympic Blinds

Three boys, skateboards

two gorgeous, one funny.

Has Celeste got a boyfriend

yep but he’s young, year nine or ten

eleven next year

I saw him at the station at midnight.

Bonbeach

Bottlemart

Seaford

vee-dub

summer dress

blunt fringe

black leggings

jelly shoes

Nissan Jeep Europcar

Carwash

Ultratune

Mitsubishi Kia

Goodyear

Brakes Plus

The ugly one picks up his phone.

‘I’m adding him back into the conversation.’

Poetics of Space

Archaeology

Nanna died in her eightieth year and knew she would,
like her sisters before her, some kind of Catholic magic.
After she died my mother found two letters on her bedside table:
the last letters her sisters had written. Nanna reread
them before she left to see Cradle Mountain for the first time
with her last living sister. Her heart stopped in Burnie.
She never saw the mountain, but maybe it's the journey that counts.
My mother also found and wrapped and put away
the last wee knitted singlet my grandmother had made.
Passed on to me more than ten years later,
worn by my children, my sister’s child.
I couldn’t find it when my cousin’s daughter was born
and then I did find it, but didn’t post it in time.
Now, again, I don’t know where it is,
isn’t it strange how objects vanish and resurface
like memories?

Packing

Into the box labelled light:

late afternoons in winter

amber scales

swimming up the wall

pale curtain
tall summer grasses

silvery brush of leaves 

when from the morning’s underlight

I swim up from sleep

the farthest point of the sky

seen from each room

the green pearl darkness

of a night in full moon