Spring Evening

It's lighter later now.

My black cat and I

come outside to sit

in warm air

with a small breeze.

Walking and Writing with Difficulty

I took the iPad instead of pen, paper notebook and digital camera. A mistake! The sun was glary, low in the sky not long before sunset. With my sunglasses on, I could barely see the screen. Even with them off, it was difficult. Taking photos consisted of point and hope. Only one worked.

Instead of trying for poems, I jotted down notes. Many typo corrections later, they read:

Large boat on nature strip

with canopy and truck.

(I remember thinking afterwards that 'large' gives the wrong idea; it was only large for a runabout.)

Clover in the grass

shaking, trembling in the breeze.

Nodding heads. Parkinson's ...

My boots hurt.

The sun is too bright.

The wind is cool.

I feel stupid

but also like a pioneer.

I like to walk here

breathing clean air, 

a little too fresh.

At the same time

I want to go home
and get into my slippers.  

Above theTrees

Above the trees, crossing that vast sky, is a tiny white cabbage moth.

Storm

Thunder and heavy rain.

How gIad I am I didn’t
water the garden early.

The Flapping of Wings

From over the fence the dove's wings flap and whirr, then stop. Perhaps, as I came outside, the noise of my door disturbed it a moment. Perhaps, like other creatures, it was resting on this warm afternoon. I know it must be the dove, though I've only seen it once. It's a big bird, and the noise, though not loud, signals the movement of something large. No tiny bird would make such a flurry. My surroundings settle down again to still mid-afternoon.

Then an even louder flapping and whirring, and no mere dove but a brush turkey leaps from next door's fence to my roof. I get up and try to find an angle from which I can photograph it with the iPad I'm writing on. By the time I do, another has jumped to the top of the fence. They're a couple! 

The one on the roof flaps back to the fence and the two stay there a few moments, walking about, changing position, checking out the view, before hopping down into next door's yard once more.

White on White

white sun blazes

from white clouds

white-hot

Winter Blooms

Only two orange flowers 

remain on the vine,

tucked in a corner of shade; 

still bright and fleshy,

still looking succulent.

Flaws

'These are natural flaws,' she said, and I realised: as crystals, people.

Beauty and integrity are not compromised by natural flaws.

Don't try to polish them away — useless; and they make each one unique.

The Ferns

The ferns grow big and flappy, waving like fans in the afternoon breeze.

Though the breeze ..

Though the breeze stirs the leaves and the air's fresh, my sleepy eyes keep closing.

At Tumbulgum

How fast the houseboat moves upriver as a wagtail swoops in closer.

In the fork of the gum with peeling bark sits a beer bottle, half-full.

In Still Air

In still air, caught by sun, the branches are sharp lines against blurry leaves.