Prompt: a follow poem
On Setting Out On A Mission
One action follows another.
They both precede the third
and there you have a triangle
of performance.
I follow no-one but devise
irresistible conversations
to attract votes away from
the major parties.
To break the back of a world
become predictable, divorced
from what really matters to us
is mere possibility.
True, I speak without evidence.
You might invite me in to chat.
and if you are not home, I leave
my heart in your letterbox.
Prompt: “Holy _________”
On hearing The Lion Sleeps Tonight: holy
harmony
While the carols rise and fall about
my head and ears, and I miss another
choir practice, you call us together,
your voice like a muezzin. To be
religious in that way is a score we’ve
never learned to read. Nevertheless,
at the Anglican school, your voice soars
like an angel’s, pure and exultant as it
leaves your throat and fills an auditorium
with its message: let song be raw
& sweet & wild, let the gift of life
be a primal
glory you never need to profit from. Let
your whole body be a testament to love.
Prompt: be explanatory
On re-reading the first draft of my memoir
I never was going to be
that woman you wanted
to walk through brick walls
climb over considerations
as the world itself broke
across your knees.
I was far too gone with my own
script, and besides I was happy
to be the heroine in my own
drama. There really was no room
for You, The Other, Stranger,
and why you asserted we were
connected never made sense.
I would always want you to
deliver me from temptation.
Prompt: afflicted
On Ageing
I dream of dancing wildly to Osibisa
turning into a sixty-five-year-old
banshee in a sedated community.
But my knees defy me, wincingly,
and there is this new sour taste
in my throat after eating sweet.
Prompt: Two for Tuesday:
sour/sweet
On Eating Fruit For Breakfast in Sydney
Mango
They’ve been bred
to be less messy
toned down to be
“tasteful”. Still, each
suck on ripe flesh
is to reminisce
about those years
of living dangerously.
Apricots
Mouthfuls
of merciful simplicity.
So easy to slice.
Smooth-skinned
flesh, mellow
on the tongue,
kind to old teeth.
Bananas
Best eaten in threes.
Why? Beats me,
but there! The fork
an agent of sacrifice
while I complete
a crossword.
Prompt: an excuse
On Holding A Colleague To Account
You had to be there.
You weren’t. It was too hot
anyway. Anyway. Whatever.
Don’t tell me what to do.
You weren’t listening.
It wasn’t my fault.
It was because.
Prompt: “I’ll Never …..”
On Confronting A Possible Truth:
I’ll Never Finish That Memoir
And if so, bury all my papers
and computer with me
in a cemetery where other writers
lie. Where I can ask, “How
to finish de composition?”
breathlessly.
Prompt: pick a direction
On Travelling South By Train Not Plane
When she gets into her stride
she’s a real goer.
Trees blur, power lines race
to keep up, or
get there first.
Are we really in contact
with rails?
We are skimming the earth,
hunting
a timely destination, and
running late.
We shimmy around broad curves.
Sheep and horses
pay no attention. It is possible
we are travelling
faster than sight.
