Poetic Asides Days 11, 12 & 13

Day 11 A Statement

A nation built on immigration

Driving home

I catch the twinkling

eyes of stars.

They watch us

come and go

arrive and leave

slam doors

and greet with

open arms.

Distant enough

to remain detached

they do not call

our movement

“waves” or “escape”

nor our individual

selves “refugee”

“expatriate”, “migrant”

“asylum seeker”.

The stories do not

move the stars

to tears or rage.

They simply continue

to travel, as we do.

Day 12 a city poem

With the Best Intentions

The train belted along.

We were bundled into the city

with an urgency we didn’t need.

We strolled through laneways.

We could have eaten food from

a multitude of nations. We chose

gourmet Italian and had no time

for coffee. We needed to get somewhere.

We were meeting friends & strangers.

The city flung its glass tresses at

the cloudless sky, and left us in

darkness, down here at the feet

which were hard and hard-wearing.

We ached just with the strain of standing

and just had to sit, watch the parade

coffee at last driving blood through

elderly hearts and bloodlines, even

though we paid dearly for the day.

With an urgency we welcomed

we were propelled out of the city.

The train belted along

and we slept most of the journey home.

Day 13 an animal poem

A Conservation Corridor

Just out there, where the ferns

leave earth and reach into a mighty universe

if only they could break through

shade cloth,

and where the ground covers

were burnt on those forty-five degree and more

days to the colour of dung,

the mouse crosses.

Not always when I’m looking,

of course, so the thrill is greater catching

a brief glimpse. I know nothing about

real mice, whether

he or she lives alone, has bred like rabbits,

has found a niche in the slab

or created an empire under the deck

sealed off from cats.

Nondescript, yet I see “it” as “she”, making

a necessary journey across a pebbled

path, or boulders, if you are

small enough.

Otherwise, she lives a secret existence,

she’s a mystery; all I know is

the world alters slightly when

she crosses my path.