Waterlog

Waterlog.

The rain has begun.

I park the car close as possible, then dodging the drops, duck into the library.

“Ahh,” says the librarian, “we’ve been wading through your requests and look what’s washed up.”

It is like Santa handing over a present.

“Ahh, ‘Waterlog’”, I say.”The perfect book to read in the bath,”

“Just don’t drop it,” he says.

I should have seen that coming but Steve is quick, very quick.

“Thanks,” I say and we have a brief chat on the merits of reading in strange places, like baths.

“Have to go”, I say. “The rain’s getting heavier.”

By the time I get to the car, the book and I are waterlogged.

Steve would have appreciated that pun.

Now I don’t have to worry about dropping it in the bath.

* what’s the strangest place you’ve read a book?

Sea Slugs

This world — we’ll never see the end of it.

So much beauty, above and below.

And just when you thought you’d seen it all,

up pops the Photographic Exhibition on Sea Slugs.

Slugs! The very name invites disdain, derision.

But these are something else: an artificer’s folly,

a frolic of design and colour, of quirky geometries

and improbable beauty — and there are 3000 varieties!

What practical use, what purpose, if not to delight?

Later I trawled through the depths of the web and emerged

staggering, reeling ; & that strange word, ‘nudibranch’

• pic courtesy of Wikipedia

Ants Doing Yoga — & Other Wild Things

Ants Doing Yoga

I was watching ants filing back and forth the other day

When two pulled ovef for a chat; and I wondered how it was

They knew each other seeing they all look alike; and I

Concluded they must have individual features like us:

Hooked noses, for instance, bushy eyebrows, little pot bellies

And carry nicknames like ‘Shorty’, ‘Ginge’ or ‘Spike’

And further ants must have little to say seeing they say it

So quickly, but mostly I wondered where ants are off to

All the time; it is hard to imagine them doing yoga, or chilling

Out at the cricket or at the beach in a deckchair or moshing out

in a mosh pit to Adam and the Ants. So where do ants go?

Reminiscing Rainbows

Reminiscing Rainbows

We were reminiscing rainbows at the writers’ workshop when the mentor

snapped: Get out of the picture. You’re spoiling the view. Let the vision

remain. So I did. I got out and wrote this:

A bright rainbow

scythes

the air:

a gentle crop

of rain

The Lions

Do I have to tame you?

You’re not lions.

And this little backyard outside my unit

is not a cage

so why don’t you behave?

I only watered you a few times during the week

and you burst out like a prison break.

You leave me no choice.

No, no, it’s too late to plead.

These shears will prune you back

to more modest dimensions.

Don’t worry. The bees will still come.

the yellow-shouldered honey-eaters and wattle birds

still visit

& I’ll still write poems about you.

All will be well.

But such profuseness ….

*pic courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Treetop Torment

How high can you fly,

clingy black flies?

20 metres,

30 metres,

40 metres high?

Even here

at 50

still you multiply.

in nose,

ears, eyes.

Were you on the moon

when the astronauts

came by?

Are you

in Purgatory

picking at our styes?

Is there anywhere

you’re not,

clingy black flies?

• pic courtesy of Pexels.com by Matej Cerkez
• from a draft in my commonplace book from December 2006

Early Morning Walk

On my early walk

I passed a group of musicians

Under the bridge

It sounded like

They were tuning their instruments

In preparation

For a concert

Perhaps a twilight one on the bank

The notes

Bouncing off

each other —Boing boing — like hollow

rubber balls

banjo frogs

amongst the rocks and reeds already

drawing a crowd

On Cue

The fat crow caws

from the top

of the peppercorn tree

kraak kraak kraak

loud, loutish, laconic

& the bloke next door calls out

to his wife

what’s that, dear?

what’s that?

Bull Ants

They do not graze in meadows.

Nor do they stare listlessly

over fences at traffic .

None , to my knowledge ,

are brindled or patchwork .

Few , if any , have horns

or tails to swish flies with .

I have never heard one moo .

Nor been charged by one

when I crossed its path .

They may see red

but are little sought after

by toreadors .

Yet they are big .

And they do pack a bite.

Okay, I looked but I didn’t stare

On a road trip the other day

we got talking about birth defects you don’t see

any more

like hunchbacks, birth marks, cleft palates

though Simon

whose father was Lord Mayor of Mars had one

and spoke with a lisp.

Then at this café in the mountains

we were served

by a barista

with a raspberry stain on his left cheek

the shape of Africa.

Is that a birth mark, I asked him. We were just talking about them.

Yes, it is, he smiled.

It was just another feature on his face, like his nose.

or a mole

It was nothing special.

Yet it had a strange sort of beauty.

He poured me the greatest cup of coffee.

I was glad that I had asked him, that I didn’t wuss out.

It’s okay to be curious.