EXCERPT

Blackbutt Reserve
While the kookaburra chirred through the eucalyptus-scented air
of the Blackbutt Reserve,
Sue’s fingers fondled the strings as she unclothed
a gum tree
of its crumbly brown bark,
and June and I strolled beneath trees
that perspectived a misty sky.
A mosquito shaped like a delta
found my blood before Sue’s eyes found her,
and flew replete far faster
than my slapping hand.
As we admired spider webs and shadowed ferns,
Sue redeemed the missed mosquito
by wafting a floating white leech,
a curling string of hunger lusting for my shoulder’s luscious skin,
off to the forest beyond.
A green-hued black lizard scuttled across our path
into thin bracken,
while Sue and I walked silently watching
its hind legs churn like the paddlewheels of a Mississippi gambler,
thirty inches of grace majestic under ferns.
As we strolled back to the car,
a magpie strolled down the path
hopping and bobbing,
and a parrot flaunted its scarlet head, scarlet chest,
and green and yellow body
while winging tree to tree,
only to freeze and blend red, yellow, green, and grace
beyond our sight, though before our eyes,
against the leaves and limbs
of blackbutt and gum.

Now, as the afternoon sun lowers towards a cliff-like hillside
in Newcastle, Australia,
I watch the waves pound surfers and beaches
beneath a cloud-laced blue sky.
The ocean spray recalls the mists in the eucalyptus rain forest
scant three hours before,
while a bride and groom pose on surf-besieged rocks
below my window
for their final photo
before their evening feast.