Gray thunder emerged from satin serf
bearing wares of a carnival hag
globes filled with terror and scumbled nerve
boring a path, bringing disorder to sand.
Silver wings bristle at the absurdities
ruddy mates pay respect and disdain
as Poseidon regains his sapphire fleece
prayer, like an orphan, will perish unclaimed.
Leaden flyers rage from jungle nests
straddling the tusks of demonic winds
the beach master sprays blood and his breath
will any be judged for patented sins.
The artisan signs "fruit splayed with silk
the young roll sweetened eyes, suckling the krill.
Something lite
She'd fetch
Boy is Deep
Steep keep leap Jeep peeped weeping
Sweeper creep
That sneak
Deet spray
No way
Jose
Way far out
Hey gay laid by the bay
Speak
Stray tame
Lame
Game
Jingle jungle
Dangle fumble
Wavy lazy Hazy daze
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Spree, mead spill
Krill thrill
Killer whale snail
Pale jail stale tale
Fail army sailor moon crescent
Wanton pondering fawn
At dawn spawn
Lawn care spare tire share
Hairdo spew unglued rude One Shoe knew
Hue of the cue that drew a muse too soon
Boom! Boom!
While my son was rock-climbing,
I was running
on wet pavement
back home,
considering the clouds
and the mishappen happenings
of this January day, and myself.
The birds were awake and twittering
because there were plentiful
worms for the taking
and it was worth singing over.
I read that the blue whales
don’t sing much anymore.
The krill swam farther away,
to cooler water.
There isn’t strength for singing
when you are starving.
Tick-tock, tick-clock goes the clock
when every second counts,
not just for Captain Hook
and his sentence of doom:
an alligator’s gaping jaws.
He’s heard before he enters:
you all know the drill.
He lurks in Shopping Centres,
as purposeful as krill.
Socially successful?
Like a waltz named ‘Emmet Till’.
His outcomes, too, are stressful
(see Wordsworth’s Harry Gill).
The death-knell at your dinner
with his punchline overkill,
a Jeanine Pirro ‘winner’:
each day a No True Bill.
His laugh’s as loud as mowers
or dad’s electric drill,
or over-taxed leaf blowers,
or an angry whippoorwill.
Denizen of the diner,
you know, for good or ill,
he’ll use his new one-liner:
audience feedback? Nil.
Why repeat the spasm?
Get up each morning, still?
He’s conscious of that chasm,
that hole he’s got to fill.
easy loan shark start up business
pretending to be your friend
feeding on you like krill
(In Rome, a small plaque on a wall shows
how high the river rose in 1872.)
It says a lot, this little marble line.
The river (Rome’s life-giver), prone to flood,
could raise, erase: the rhythm of Proserpine,
of summer, winter, it’s the beat of blood.
What are we, then, we humans? So much krill,
to flourish and then wither? Nothing more?
Accretions crowding every Quirinal Hill,
but rinsed away like Ephesus, Elsinore?
A tremor pulverised the gems of Giotto.
We labour, learn and languish – then we’re dead.
Achievement? Summed up by the Ponte Rotto.
Try grasping, with your educated head
(encapsulated in this modest motto)
that rivers rise and fall. What’s then been said?
I dive into the depths of mother sea
she nurtures me, conceals me, delights me
two dolphins swim up and surround me
keeping me out of the great white’s sight
I am careful to not dangle my appendages near mother’s corals
they are deadly sharp, and blood would bring other sharks
I do a few loops and whorls, feeling at home, feeling mermaid-like
Never do I feel more alive than when I am the depths of an ocean
a school of fish swim past, they are too big to be krill
I think one winks at me; understanding my oneness with them
Returning to the surface for a breath is annoying to me
I never did that in my other life when I was an electric eel
Come to me krill, humpback whale calls
She feeds on a ton of them each day
Bottle nose comes up through the squalls
Hunting squid and small fish along the way
They are not in competition when they lunch
Both eating their way through ocean with a crunch
Crabeater seal has special teeth
Straining krill from down beneath
Water drains but tiny fishes stay in
Magic teeth strainer is a huge win
weird hum in the sea
a floating human-less hump
a humpbacked whale
hungry and hunting
hurrying to hurl krill
hoary humpback heaves with happiness
heads home to retain place
as hermit of the High Seas
An iceberg beach
in southern seas
has sunning seals dream warm.
An iceberg platform
hosts party-penguins primping, flipping
in tuxedo-feathered dives.
Iceberg lids
on ocean pots
keep meals of squid and krill in brine.
This subconscious analogy
may house unknown minds
that deeply lurk below.
The iceberg stalker
now, is a foggy shroud
where ship-bones groan.
Here, a sunlit castle fades:
a midnight-pink covers
the silent melting weather-throne.
Effortlessly out of a seabed of notions
words rise.
Many are eaten by sharks,
or the ever-nibbling krill
of second thoughts.
You learn to make
the holes of the net smaller
no more trawling,
just the quick swoop and catch
will land them still wriggling.
Now recline on the shore of self,
relax,
put your legs in the air, count your toes,
until a line hooks you
to an effortless poem.
Written: January 22, 2024
_________________________________________
I hear the wild cry as I sleep,
no roaming goats or gulls or sheep.
Tire them out, no trace of dread sweep,
seamless grass is combed by reap.
I heard the humpback cry whale site,
before the day turned into night.
Hunt for krill, girls, and young scouts fight,
boys, singing, as one, of raw dight.
Meadowlarks wave wings in the breeze,
hunt flies in the sun, fly with bees.
Breathe fresh air as lowly birds tease,
tweet, and perch on red tussock trees.
Meadow wrens chirp as streams dry out,
fly high to low till storms cross route.
You said that I should see a whale -
a giant from the southern seas
swimming song-lines up the coast,
and so I came on board your boat
to wait and look.
You told me humpbacks follow
ancient ocean-routes
beyond their icy water-home,
bellies full of krill,
for corroboree
up north.
Aha! I see her!
Just like the sea is the sudden whale!
She’s breaching, grey on white –
a fluke – her tail! It’s huge!
Slap! Smack!
I saw a whale today.
More graceful in full blubber
than a ballroom dancer,
a seal slides down banisters
of ocean spirals
in ice-cold currents.
Smiling like a cat,
slipping into water,
swimming down and up,
for fish and krill and squid.
Sunning, sleeping on the rocks,
I could never push you over.
Seal - immovable.
Seal - so fat.
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