APRIL POEM-A-DAY

Day 23 – a morning poem

Today began as a palette
of greys, gently drenched
the paving bricks, their cream
darkening to mustard. Ants
so frantic these past days
nowhere to be seen,
bunkered. A lone dreamy
green long-tailed parrot
sang a sorry song, swinging
on thin branches where
Little Ragged Blossom’s
skirts hung bedraggled.

Pigeons and blackbirds
took advantage of the absence
of cats, fossicking through
straw mulch and gravel.
I knew it was morning
only because of the light -
the sun must have been
somewhere up there
creating a glorious golden
dawn on the upper side of
the planet’s fat cloudy quilt.

I heard the aeroplane overhead,
knew the people in it would
shade their eyes against
the brilliant blinding rays,
while I turned on lights and
central heating, remembered
my last tropical holiday.