poetry

gingerbread houses (without gingerbread)

gingerbread houses (without gingerbread)

made from materials
from the open minimart:
2 packets of biscuits
just-add-water Royal Icing
a box of food colouring
a bag each of M&Ms
and Sour Patch Kids
and (most importantly)
imagination

look what emerges:
sunflower gardens
Twister games
swimming pools
snowmen
Christmas trees
busy minds hands hearts
3 sugary scenes
and one yummy new memory

poetry

Mom

Mom

she comes carrying a string of lights
some filled with trees and snow
some with dark times overcome
cold days outlasted

she comes laughing at Big Mama Burger
looking for Christmas
ready to go
wherever we are

poetry

December in Queensland

December in Queensland

Away in a Manger crackles
under an invisible Southern Cross
and full-lit half moon
while the maniacal kookaburras
and blood-curdling bush stone-curlews wail
accompanied by the occasional flaps and crashes
of overgrown fruit bats dangling from the trees
and once in a blessed while
the slightest sigh of breeze

it’s December in Queensland
so far from home