manners
in Puerto Varas
nonstop dogs and parakeets
all day/night long
until the moment I close my eyes
then mercifully
they all go quiet simultaneously
and I hear nothing more –
one more miracle
of a brain that knows
when I’ve had enough,
lies to my body to just bring rest –
until the instant my lids open to sun
when the whole rough chorus
sings the day awake
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
