Alloy, Usually Hardened

(response to "How Would You Like...")

This is what you call joy

created through an amalgam

of death and rhythm

an admixture of metals

in a city nothing more

than concrete and dreams

built from frozen seconds.

Kodak Instamatic, a birthday gift

which only captured black and white.

I could tell from your face

radiant 

in a way I would not see again

even on the third, fourth, fifth marriage

your finger heavy with the weight of 

so many rings

that I was dancing

twirling like a clumsy ballerina

just outside the boundary of the frame. 

I'm still dancing

no more graceful than I was then

caught in the suede fringe of your 

famous jacket.

Just behind you, behind him

is a couple kissing

against a winter tree

no leaves, just a ghost of a tree

a ghost of love.

How Would You Like...

Everyone's a transplant and an amalgam-- Alloy, usually hardened. Yet getting pliable and vulnerable is suggested - recommended. We know better than to require the exigent. Rebellious help is not help: just ask my friend the restauranteur. The food is fusion but the help is fission. Our way of getting through all this mixing and unmatching-- is in our way.

what shall we do nest year?

 

what shall we do nest year?

for Sarah St Vincent Welch

 

when every month’s of Sundays

and all the moons are blue

 

a peach blossom wild creek

tangle with ferns

 

we will live in a typographical error

and go to press that way

 

chorus of twig and leaf to prove

the birds beginning Spring  

Lockdown blog

 

Stuck in Sydney in the family home, I've begun a daily blog inspired by my daily walks through the nearby Dame Eadith Walker Estate.  Here's a sample.

Preface

The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne by Gilbert White (1720-1793) has provided both an inspiration and a template for this lockdown blog.  The following has been lifted directly from this text:

The author of the following letters takes the liberty, with all proper deference, of laying before the public his idea of parochial history, which, he thinks, ought to consist of natural productions and occurrences as well as antiquities.  He is also of the opinion that if stationary men and women would pay some attention to the districts in which they reside, and would publish their thoughts respecting the objects around them, from such materials might be drawn the most complete county-histories.

 

Day I - Saturday the 24^th of July, 2021 AD

Dear Sir

The Dame Eadith Walker Estate is within half a mile of my current accommodation. Lockdown has provided myself with the opportunity to walk the grounds of this fine estate on a daily basis. In the following days I will provide you with a description of my observations on a daily basis.

Today, a stiff breeze from the north-west at around 20mph (ref. BOM) has discouraged most birds from feeding in the open grass field on the north side.  They have mostly retreated to the trees or to the southern fields on the lee side.  Welcome swallows (more details to follow) and magpies are the most obvious.

Yours etc.

Sunday the 25th of July 2021 AD

Dear Sir,

The Dame Eadith Walker Estate, also known as Yaralla Estate, and now home to the Dame Eadith Walker Hospital, lies in the suburb of Concord West, in the city of Canada Bay, formerly the municipality of Concord, in the Parish of Concord, in the County of Cumberland, in the state electorate of Drummoyne, in the federal division of Reid, formerly the division of Lowe, located on a promontory on the Parramatta River between Majors Bay to the east and Yaralla Bay to the west, approximately half-way between the centres of the cities of Sydney and of Parramatta, in latitude 33.847 south and 151.087 east.

The Estate is bordered on it’s west side by Nullawarra Avenue. The avenue is lined with what I think are maple trees.  At this time of year, they are totally bereft of leaves, but the branches are still holding a fair number of seed pods.  There are hundreds of these pods on the ground under each of these trees.  The pods are hard, sharp, dry and brown.  They are a serious trip hazard and must be responsible for many sprained ankles. They’re aesthetically unpleasant and do not look appetising at all. However I’ve witnessed rainbow lorikeets tucking into them. They must have been hungry.

Yours etc.