Busker in the Mall

The busker in the mall buffs

The rough edges of songs so they are

Soft and amiable as beanbags

Sacco beanbag courtesy of Wikipedia

Above the Park

What a hullabaloo!

before quiet.

Now riot.

Cockatoos.

The Fluff Tree

I had a vision.

A tree, its branches made of fluff,

bedecked with baubles

with a star on top

like a Xmas tree.

I could see it in the corner

of the lounge room where the presents all go

in all its grey woolly fluffiness

but when I opened my eyes …….

Pubs with No Beer

People smile, meet, chat

on jetties: those open air pubs

with no beer

The Red Wheelbarrow at 90

The red wheelbarrow is looking a little scungey

has lost some of its sheen since 1923

being out in the weather

but Williams would have approved of its use as a plant nursery

and I’m sure there are some white chickens

grazing nearby

The Bees

the bees drift among the blossoms

somnolent as a sommelier who has had

one too many

Dialect

Those three blokes

chatting away at the gym

don’t speak standard English

they speak in the dialect

of Aussie Rules

• pic by Pinterest

Intimacy

on that vast, lonely ocean

two ships

hug the horizon

The Spider’s Rebuke

You really should tough it,

Little Miss Muffet

and not look so surprised

when all unbid

a hairy arachnid

drops down before your eyes.

Hey, I’m only a spider.

I’m not going to bite yer,

I just dropped down to say:

I’m a little peckish,

I haven’t had breakfast

& I saw your curds and whey

I Made the Cover

I made the cover or rather the illustration for my poem did of ‘The School Magazine’. Here is the poem that goes with it:

Maybe

Maybe the Earth

looks lonely.

Maybe that’s why

the Moon

keeps it company

each night

• illustration by Christopher Nielsen from ‘The School Magazine’