Friday, November 1, 2013

A Home Down Under

Some visual and poetic snaps (except for the borrowed bandicoot) from my recent trip home to Sydney in the Springtime, staying with my dear old mum, who continues to keep on keeping on in the Frenchs Forest house I grew up - and uttered my first word - in. 

A room with a view in zoom, from the Frenchs Forest house

NO                                                          
My first word (Mum reminds)

The easiest and the hardest
The shortest and the sharpest

The boldest and the dumbest
The oldest and the youngest

I've been saying Yes ever since
Until tonight...





WIND IN THE WIRES
Gum tree making way for the wires

Of my childhood -                                             

The sound of Time 
Moaning, tunnelling, tantruming 

A lonely, looking, 
Left-behind sound

Portending, remembering, travelling
Backwards and forwards

Time: forever wired on the wind 


BANDICOOT 
A borrowed bandicoot

Between a rat and a soft toy              
A busy bandit in the night
Flashes marble-eyed
Dashes underfoot
Our clinking, chinking drinks
An old ornamental owl ignores
Too stiff and wise to blink

Now urgently out onto the grass
The soft bandit sneaks
Sniffing the secrets of the deep 
Digging holes for her magic marble maze
Frantic to finish before midnight 
When she turns back into 
A bandicoot

An ornamental owl


A STORM OVERSOLD

Thick rumbling thunder rolls
Cackling, crumbling
Crackling, mumbling

A trembling wind shivers and shakes
Agitating the helpless washing
Into flinging fits as if
To ease its own anxiety

An angry army approaches
Doors bat and rattle and squeak
Not knowing what else to do

A small-sounding dog
Braves a bark or two
Too few for a proper protest

Nature darkens her brows
Hunkering down against 
The blustering, bravado beast    

Before the rain finally falls
A gentle, cool release
Hardly the horror the thunder foretold
A storm oversold

A priceless, storm-free beach (Manly)






2 comments:

  1. Like your lyrical review (and pics) of your old neighbourhood, especially ‘A Storm Oversold’ – “Crackling, mumbling”. ‘Wind in the Wires’ great title for a album.

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  2. Yeah, the build-up was practically orchestral to the point of being frightening. Would have made a good soundtrack to a horror film. But nothing much to follow, like you wanted your money back. Rather like the Aussies to have a bark greater than their bite, methinks.
    'Wind in the Wires'... so now we know what to call that first album :D

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