Sally gave me the words NOW, GORGEOUS, and GAUDY. And I came up with this (rather cumbersomely-titled) poem.
LEAF LITTER ORGANISMS
Far below the gorgeous blossoms of spring branches
and gaudy summer blooms —
hide in a world of golds and browns
and seed pod husks,
bits of bark and damp and dark.
Hide away.
Now take the bushland’s songs and stories
taste them, test them, tear them,
bury them,
then
deeper
still …
until they turn to earth.
Sally gave me the words BENEATH, CLOSE and WEEKEND. The non-human character featured in this poem was inspired by a willy wagtail, a frequent visitor here, and I kind of wished I’d taken a photograph of him so I could have included it with the poem. But if I wait till I get the photo, the poem will never get posted …
There’s a weekend bird
that chats to me
beneath the front yard lemon tree.
He hops on rocks and
pecks at leaves
and tells me all his joys and woes.
We watch the sky
and feel the breeze
beneath the front yard lemon tree.
And spelling lists
and mental maths
seem far away and long ago.
My weekend bird
hops close to me
beneath the front yard lemon tree.
Though he’s a bird
and I’m a boy,
we swap our stories; off he goes.
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