All my verses past
And future, glow and shimmer.
Coals in the campfire.

After a hot dry
Summer, rain. Trees produce new
Leaves, toward the sun.
Lying on a bed
Of dried leaves and twigs, bare skin
Absorbs the sun's gift.

Lying, not stretching.
New leaves green above. The sky
Mesmerising blue.

You don't know
what it's like.
You don't know
what it's like.
To love somebody.
To love somebody.
The way I love you.

Shall I speak of love
Or the mosquitos biting
My feet? Nothing helps.

The emergency department of a hospital in an outback town.
The unrelenting gaze of the camera.
We watch a father try to comfort his young son.
Medical science cannot explain the boy's fits; further tests do not help.
The camera repeatedly focuses on the father's hands: rough hands
With dirt under the fingernails
Tenderly trying to comfort the boy.
Another patient, a young man who fell from his motorbike a week ago
And now has constant headaches.
His partner, a young woman wearing a high-viz work shirt, looks into the camera to tell his story; her eyes
Show us her innermost fears.
It turns out he is OK. Not so the elderly
Woman suffering from terminal cancer Who fell and bashed her head.
With good cheer she lets the doctors fix her up
So she can go home. A postscript tells us the cancer later took its expected course.
Time for something more cheery? How about
A documentary about a mass wedding
Performed by the Reverend Moon?
Young people from every continent
Gather to marry people they do not know.
Arranged by parents and the church.
Blessings of peace and love to them.
People submit to the strangest things.

Carving a polystyrene heart.
Turning the white shape,
In hands held close to my chest.
Slicing with the sharp blade,
Suddenly my hands are stained
Scarlet - can a styrene heart bleed?
Just ink on my sweaty hands.
The carved heart takes its place
In a sand mould - vaporised
By molten metal to become
My cold, cast iron, heart.