a lady lying by – a scene with multiple outcomes

I was just reflecting on the sudden lack of distance vision as I walked out of the office and into the sunset. Where were those glasses ? As I got to the corner and saw a bit of mangled bumper black on the grass, I worried. What was that thing ? That bumper type thing lying there – carelessly placed. Then police cars silent with an ambulance – and a lady lying there – unsmudged on the grass. The ambo was discussing possibilities with the lady – would you like to go to hospital ? Perhaps ? – and the lady lying by in recline on the grass considering her options.

remember after the rain and the dams deluge divides

it’s been a while , the drought in writing is belied by the flood waters sweeping through towns like rivers to an inner ocean of calm australian response.

It’s sunny here today in sydney but still you see in the morning light convective waves of vapour rising up the trunks of the trees.

we are lucky to have dams which even now can’t catch all the water but which water the have will keep us alive for 5 years of drought – which will follow. And the dams have no choice but to deluge the towns downstream.

Wagga wagga is cut in two. Its bridge some 30 ft up , no match for the mighty murrumbidgee.

Bathurst is cut in two – its bridge no match for the muddy macquarie, sending its loamy catch all the way to the darling river – where it will travel long long way down through the inner sea to the bight.

So our memory is divided by the deluges which turn up every generation – there will be before and after the 2012 flood just like the ’55 flood. children who have never seen one find out the drama of it and all before is erased and all after will be new.

Water rocks and streams [a poem]

Water Rocks and Streams

Time is flowing faster,

when friends friends and children leave

they get less likely to come

when the their river runs faster

with white birds of heaven and black birds of fate

sit together,  slow heavy on our mossy bank of dreams

watching our lives as water rocks and streams

there you are down and having fun

life your own to damage and array

and makes lonely the days of those who gave it

when you go away.

yet we know we know you know we all must go

and make a mark on this blue water sphere

where gravity pulls hard and stronger faster time

where else does its clock tick except here

to live and ready for eternity

CJS SYDNEY 2012

Summer Morning [a poem]

whip crack calls of the dawn bird as the sun starts up

the engine of the day beyond

their sound filters through the misty branches

damp with joy

whose trunks drip bursting a gluey gum of love

down toward the rainy earth and leaves

me regarding you, waking in love

for another day