online today!FargoFan Poetry (77)

Having been to the shops and club
lightly laden with ever more expensive
vegetables, leeks, zuchinis, choy sam
and the like - dusk but still 38 degrees

up the hill I observed the low fences
judging six bricks too high
and five just right,
a little like goldilocks perhaps.

sitting resting briefly on warm bricks
for just a moment or two
every 200 metres or so measured
meticulously by 125 left feet

then resumed to the top
the chattering chittering
of lorrikeets accompanying me
on my unsteady walk.

down the hill and the large frangipani,
fragrant white and yellow flowers
littering the lawn. the seemingly
abandoned ute rear assembly

then the two boats, scraped and scraping
the Riga that has not seen water for years
of which I gently tease the owner
and The Black Beast soon to burble again.

Then home,
the white tea-tree not now blooming

I have fond
Inerasible memories
Of a small Japanese Maple,
the first house ever I bought
and a garden to warm the heart.
Christchurch Autumns
It reddened.

Lovely tiny birds aplenty
and the long-haired
smoke grey cat
proudly presented
the heart of one
expecting praise it seemed,
as perhaps did the bikies
for raiding our freezer

Berries and
asparagus flourished
Hydrangeas in front
So why did we move?
Bigger house,
Her children, school
I cannot remember
But the maple I cannot forget.

Whenever I see
A movie like that, angry!
What then are women?

Have I ever written of that terrible night?
From my Cambridge Terrace riverside house
Mid autumn 1968
the eerie howl of the wind
and the weird charcoal afternoon sky
looming glooming twixt those European trees
through whose leaves I scuffed every Autumn.
I stood watching trees heaving boughs creaking
some 300 km from the wallowing ship
where 51 died one stormy night.

Did your ever see
A crow smile?
Unlike a kookaburra
No mirthful cackle
Just grim descending triple caw

Did you happen to see Chris Tame
Stand beside Morrison
And with her steadfast glare
Put him and his like to shame?

Well there you are
The birds of Oz are pretty fearful
And be not mistaken
They are not mere full
Of shyte - they Bite!

Said the March-hare to the crone
Why crone you say?
Here today and gone tomorrow
But she's kind of old you'll sure agree
Mmm yes but rather sexy
As only grey-haired women be.
Oh weird freak such women you seek?
I do I do indeed
Well when in need
Seek me I plead
I'll find some dye tomorrow!

Is always shown full in movies it seems
Whatever happened to the waning or waxing
Hint of the moon seen as often in life
and no less wonderful I feel

Fifteenth day is full in lunar calendar,
now is first quarter and waxing
Tell me pray when last you saw
First or third quarter?

Biang biang noodles
in Xi'an, a discovery
to warm the heart when feet
tired from the day in Bing ma yong
had time for recovery.
Flat wide noodles and fiercely spicy.
Yellow dust made me long
For a shower to wash
both myself and my socks.
At this distance of years
with certainty I say
Biang biang rocks!

It's the same yellow dust
of the Yellow sea and Yellow river
that blows from the Gobi and Taklamakan
to Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo.
Just so you know
This 'poem' is rather
a 'jokey' oh!

How does a sheet dry
in the cold winter wind?
In Seoul I saw trees
Wrapped 'gainst the winter
And nothing green,
But in this movie
the raped grandma
hung out the washing
and grey-haired smiled.
A movie but nonetheless
Life as it is.

If I should want
to write to you again
though never had I stopped
what should I say
My lovely that I have not said before?
Now as a teacher let me try
to explain the tenses
Oh I cannot!

Our union on one hand
And yet it has never stilled our loving
When she intervened it alarmed us
both mightily, but since
no influence

Not the first time a child
Has trodden between
me and one I loved
Every time I walk past
the smooth grey eucalyptus
I think of her too

She who commanded by a son
to fore-swear a laowai,
with a grandchild looming,
acceded - well no court of appeal
and the word of the first son
with confucian weight carried.

Two loves, one lost one remote.

Should I ever tread there
In your room your place your house
Unbidden, and stand
Looking at you your garden
Your beans your basil
How will you greet me
Darling Grace?

Should I ever come
To take you oh
anywhere everywhere
will you stand and nod?
Please do, I need your yes
Don't think just come
My Darling Grace!