deprived
wake me when it’s critical
Cedar says
I’ve felt that way for years
and still won’t put myself to bed
every moment of consciousness
feels critical as it is
Tag: Australia
another climate crisis
another climate crisis
dappled sun on sidewalk goes orange
and our eyes jerk up to sky –
that eerie fire light
filtered through smoke again –
I see the wavelength change before I smell it
and my heart tenses and stomach sinks
we are meant to run from this
not choke on smoke summer after summer
Colorado Alaska Sydney Medan –
wherever we go
the flames are there:
lodgepole cones explode
eucalypts ignite
jungle succumbs to palms
and now the whole fat squashed disk
of this country/continent
glows garnet red on the heat map
the only cool blue left
is boiling ocean
the men in suits clamp their ears shut
to not hear the crackle
to ignore the girl in braids
who demands they be bold by being humble
admit they’ve upset a balance
put too much black coal on the ledger
run everything into the red
red panda in the sprinkler
red panda in the sprinkler
his sleek black stomach
begs a caress
cinnamon coat goes scruffy
in the spray
upturned mouth stretches
a gleeful wet face
into a weak smile
while sparks of sun
splash everywhere
opera house
opera house
shells returning the sound of the sea
echoing the breath
trumpeting the news
cradling pearls of reflected human forms
each made from the uncomfortable itch
of grit worried around until
layer by slow painstaking layer
a round rainbow-hued orb
smoothed out the rough patch
& turned injury into art
city trees
city trees
trees are different here, massive
sometimes they have memories
they’re big bulky beings to be reckoned with
spared from any axe or plow
sentries sentinels sentient
and their crowns that peer around
make an acre of shade
not-so-distant sea
not-so-distant sea
the unmistakable blue band
of watery bowl beyond
the this-and-that of land
is even better when
dashed here-and-there
with white hyphens
of bubbling surf
glowworm grotto
glowworm grotto
in the black dark
we assemble arrayed opposite
a bank of cold blue glowing embers
the little dots shine steady
excepting those reflected in the stream
which waver in the wind
gazing at the electric blue
Mind begins to craft
its own Dreamtime story:
stars sky earth fire song water
but that’s not enough –
love loss betrayal remorse punishment
all leading to
the quiet blue bank
gifted to us tonight
pouch peek
pouch peek
wooly grey fur ripples
in an unsettling way
skin splits and a nose peeks out
suddenly we learn
where koala kids are stored
in a space not as like a pocket
as a furred womb
mother K lazes unfazed
as joey rumpuses about
she’s shared her body
long as she can remember now
making room for him
not just in her heart
inanimate love
inanimate love
our children sometimes
shove and kick each other
speak harshly and tease
they aren’t always gentle
with a brother’s heart
but you would never guess these things
if you saw the tender way
they work together to buckle in
each inanimate stuffed animal
in the car
both openly concerned about
each little body’s
safety, comfort, and view,
their hearts utterly in tune
when they care for these
beings without blood
