Just watch the children run
Out of the lift (I've never
Experienced it but since when was tuition fun?)
One
After another
Parents searching amongst the crowd
To find their own amongst the others
And it's not like they're particularly loud
But I still can't tell who's who
And when they all make it to
Mummy and Daddy
Dashing past me
As I stand plastered to the wall
I'm just wondering how they're all
So happy
Now another group of adults now
Probably off work
Wondering how
To pay the bills, feed the family
These are the ones with the more
Relatable faces
Headspace
Only for
Work and stress
And honestly this change is happening far
Too early for the people in our
Age and now the question I'm asking is
“When will they grow out of this”
This naivety, this knowing
That growing
Up won't change a thing
Because that isn't what I've been seeing.

saw this cute girl the other day…
while smoking a cigarette at my balcony:
i was hovering over the pathway  
she’d eventually cross,
like an apparition watching over
her resplendent ignorance.

she eventually did -
the cigarette, having not been ****** on
for a while, drooped like a limp ****
between my fingers;
i flicked the bud:
the ashes drifted away with the wind,
like confetti -
in the same direction she walked off
below -
as i watched from above.

I rush to speak
When I should be quicker
To pause and think,
Parsing each phrase.
How my words will and could
Be interpreted or construed
And of that, whatever resulting.
Of the checks & balances
We put ourselves through,
What is the material from which
The weights of judgement
Have been constructed?
Pig iron, sterling silver, stainless steel?
And of our choice of counterweights,
What is revealed?

it's all occupied with dark fumes of flatulence
      the bus hanger
          it's teething and earning      a low ceilinged thrive

regularly cleaned    the roof portal
   with a large drooping eye
          brags of blue sky
the coaches are idling
   fretful   to be burdened and go

elsewhere
the public urinals
there's a strong smell of iron
are the morning users dehydrated
  malnourished or ill ?
i feel a little flated

elsewhere
in the waiting area
   a neatly turned out teen
    wants to give their seat to the infirm
does not     and hurts inside  averting
(a public act of courtesy
   would   after all   be an embarrassing one)

attention back to the importance
my friend has ungreeted me
  i have wished him ease
  and he has passed between the cordons
amongst amiable cattle
  he pauses at the authorities verification
who   in turn
   tails them to load up their luggage
                    and become their driver

                             - goodbye my friend

clipping a trail
  through the un-mown grasses of prehistory
i am reduced and nuded 
  by the buoyant vat   of sky baby blue

the grasses seed the heels of my work clogs
spiking sensory jabs through my socks
      a shy petting of pain

with the prow of my stride
  tiny residents vault scut and flutter
neatly evading   un panicked

radiating wet heat raises to my waist
i stop my destructive wading
i am slit, vulnerable and fed
i am primitive and free
i have membership
my uniform   banished

i take in a humid breath

about face
       and the illusions are switched
the buildings icon dominates
       and draws my responsibility
i can smile at the wash of life
       and reinstate myself in paid labour

Terribly
Terribly hot
“…No way…”
“…today was really…”
“..every day…”
“…she’s been acting so…”
The conversations
Blend and babble
Around me like
A brook and the bird-calls
In the mountain green
The leather seat
Sticks to my skin like glue
I bobble and bounce and I
ACK! Gosh **** turns!

Aut
12/09/21

She dresses
colors for the autumn
her hair naturally so
metallic in ginger
she wants to summon in the season early
ring it to her heel
to match her charge

            

27/09/21

welling purple and grey sky
a steady cold rain
the automatic sprinklers
douse the neighbour's lawn

             *

for mid October it's not cold
people dress up out of habit

             **

aged couple occupy a park bench
Old Cold White & Doughy
Partnered
Hand in Hand
     sloped into each other like children
          
i never figured out how to make a public bench mine

I see a lot of Night Moths by day
                                            this year
they battle along
ground level contours
they risk powdered tissue wings
whapping against your person
I question their mission
and wonder what cause
would be worth
such perilous behaviour ?

            

Spider descends on a fresh thread
new project ?
Changes its mind
re-spools itself

             *

autumn sun and breeze
weeds fringing a vacant lot
settling quiet in me

            

i stop
rabbit is still
rabbit blinks
agreeing to run away
i step and rabbit runs

             *

Birds grounding themselves
energy conservation for Winter ?
they feign at being flightless
and eat ground level berries