sometimes silence
is the best
reply,
answer,
company.

you know when the ground
is dry and cracked and hardened,
and the fields crunch underneath you and grass splinters
and cows group under shade
in the country towns you drive through
doing 50kms on the main road,
stopping for a pie and paying with cash?

yeah that ground. anyway,

you know when the rain's due
and the clouds bundle like sheets in the washing basket
and that smell of dirt and sky
and the thick drops fall on your neck,
and you squint your face up and wait for the next one to hit you?

yeah that rain. anyway,

you know how the water pools and the ground can't drink it fast enough
and it's drought signs to flood signs in sixty minutes
and the crops fail and the men cry,
all because the ground wasn't ready for what it needed to arrive so fast?

yeah that irony. anyway,

I feel that in my heart sometimes.

my friend,
when I'm with you
I remember who I am.

what is friendship
if not finding ourselves
together,

day after unsimple day,
untangling it all.

so many thoughts to gather -
ideas and threads
and things they've said
and heard and honed

so many thoughts to gather -
the fear and dread
of things unsaid
unlearned, unknown

so many thoughts to gather -
from faith and friends
shall I pretend
they're all my own?

heart to mind
these conversations
hardest kind

head to heart
lost in translation
speaking blind

soul to God
these conversations
yours and mine

Your face, narrow
Like dawn
Young and fresh

Your faith, narrow
Like yawns
Nothing left

Your space, narrow
Like me
No room to let.

It's one-oh-nine AM
the somber cold
is echoing
the conch of sleep
enfolding me
to whisper
waves of morrow
to my dreams

Why must you write,
& why must you sing,
Why must the bird
advent on her wing?

The anatomy tells
of grandeur, of things
you were made for
and long for,

were destined to bring.

I would write your name on my heart
But one day it may fail
I would carve your name into trees
But one day they may fall
So I'll just write your name on the Internet
*Because nothing we ****** say on there
Can ever be erased.

Teach her not feminism
but femininity

for as she finds herself
only then,
rapt in purpose

she will know
what is worth fighting for

We are purposed beyond ourselves

To know and to love,

But first we must understand

The eyes with which we see.

the who's who's
the ties and suits
the black and white
the stripes, the sleuths
the egocentric
tall, concentric
parts of us parade
eccentric
through the cities
in the minds
we make ourselves,
for only ourselves
on streets we walk alone,
in need of truth.

On my way to post a letter
Out my car Windows
I saw a grammar
Make a dash across the road
In an effort to be punctual
To a function at the TAB.
I skidded my car to a full stop,
Lost control in her direction,
Not in time to avoid my space-bar
I dashed over to find
She was in a comma!

Hit with a forward slash
It was a capital offense
I could not escape
Yet I was bold,
Tensely outlined the events
They docked a dot point
off my pen licence
and after bringing me before the keyboard
Sentenced me to a short spell
In a prison pen
(as it was just a lower case).

Entering the ward,
I paged the shift nurse
After her line break
‘- Would she wake?’
As it turns out her back space
Will have question marks
But her chances are greater-than most
Her progress is fontastic
For her age bracket
But her colon was disturbed -

She may have trouble
                                       with
                                                    her
                                                               vowels.

you forget
you are a poet
and accidentally
make sense

A boyish grin in your branches
you climb into the sky
with fingertips on tree-bark
to its shoulders, through its eyes
on red-gum scribbles
wooden heights

Barefoot, scamper upward
earth in your lungs
breathe deeply, and feel
the roots in your chest
as web-woven shadows
teeter along

Oh build your castle there
and champion truth
with that sun-blonde hair
in the sky of sea, adrift in the light
on cotton-white tides

As fifty-two birds fly
like cards, dealt ever upward
on skyscape velveteen
in their paper-skins, like you
take flight, take flight
with your hearts and your diamonds,

red as the land

below

The night begs attention
silent, bold
unafraid of stillness
unafraid to hold
the fierceness,
fragility of breath
the finity of death
& behold her blackness,
the darkness,
and in the void to rest
to wait for what is left
and for the sun.

hmmm.
worked like a charm.

don't take life too seriously
don't take life too
don't take life
don't take
give.

my eyes are dry
i can't complain
salt water never quenched
my thirsting anyway

So I guess
I found you by accident
and forgot you
on purpose

petal frills and perfumed lace
roses vie for twirling space
each crimson face,
each quiet grace
does turn upon the silent stage
like a tide, an empty page
and sings in wordless ways

                               *"Beauty awaits, beauty awaits"

The heart sees in colours
That the mind can't comprehend

I am the girl
taught by autumn
entranced by leaves

as I wonder
how these dying
are so beautiful

I am the girl
taught by strangers
intrigued by eyes

as I wonder
how these beautiful
can be dying

underneath

should be asleep
but i'll make these words
my pillow

she swept in the sea with a glance
stirred up the sand with a dance
and shells were her nails
bright hair, unfurled sails
to carry herself on the wind