Don't take things so personally
Don't harm yourself over nothing
Stop thinking
And remember to breathe
My brain rattles off a list of
Therapy terms in times like these

I'm going crazy
For the sake of saving face.
I've never been more insane
I just need to survive, day by day.

But how am I expected to forget you so easily?
He was a beautiful human being
One of the only ones I knew.
Why do the wonderful ones
Have to die first
Or suddenly?

How I am I expected to forget him so easily?
Everything he did to me
Seeing him everyday
Feeling the fear travel up my spine
Into my neck until my head cannot bear it.

So I repeat one more phrase
To myself in the silence
Remember
Remember to forget.

Was lovingly stolen, branded as a belonging,
pried open for the jewel, love hidden inside,
made to dance to a haunting tune whistled
that melted the inner being, All done by you
I just connived with my captor though.But now,
woken from the dream, I find there aren't two,

Love made us complete, with all its hues

It’s just like the empty space …
Unable to express

slap on a smile.
greet the world.
don't dare think thoughts,
sad and unfurled.

make small talk.
the smaller the better.
do not think to burden
and fetter,
others with the sadness,
hidden behind,
those smiling glassy eyes.

walk the happy walk.
win the useless prize.

wave away the despair
and the complex layers
of grief.
breathe in the clean air.
if you must cry,
keep it brief.

think of all the useless
words,
that people say.
make them your mantra
against these sad and woeful days.

the future is bright,
for some if not all.

but the thing you need
remember,
most of all.
is these days too shall pass.
until then,
slap on a smile and hold fast.

the disquiet...
of the morning,
awakens me....
the magpie's squabble...
the wood pigeons.... cloying...
.. cooing love song..
the raucous, cacophony... of
the kookaburras ....as they sort out .....todays..... territorial hierachy...
........... all proclaim
morning has ......broken
.......in a sleep shattering... way
but... still ...today.. i try to eke
out ......a few more winks
....a few more.... .....moments....
of.... semi-conscious bliss
oh! .......... to .....close ....my eyes
and ....dream some more...
....but no!!!..... the cat
........is having
....................none of that.....
the birds are up...
and he........ housebound....
is hungry..... hungry...***..

hot,still,torpid air
made stagnant,
by stifling, sultry heat.

we sit shattered,
sapped, silent,
on the back deck,
drinking beer,
sweating salt water.

watching the distant
scrubfire smoke, feed
into the heavy,
green-black storm clouds
on the mountain's ridge.

the cat shifts, with the rays
of broken sunlight, a grey shadow,
on the teak deck.

my son cries listlessly
and then returns to his nap.
the sound of sport and
energy drifts, distorted
from nana's anexxe.

we sit effete
on the back deck,
drinking beer,
quiescent in anticipation
of rain