a handful of seeds on air

a handful of seeds on air
26 August 2022 for New Zealand National Poetry Day ‘Given Words’ competition.  The words were: Different, thankful, help, dream, warrior

A Weathercat wonder snap

we saw it
round the world,
this moment of the
occupier on the
street, the soldier
in his uniform
with big gun
at the hip
to shoot the
way clear to Kiev
might have thought
this grandmother
was just being rightfully
thankful, coming
forward as if in
welcome, stuffing
with persistent fingers
a generous helping of
sunflower seeds into

traffic

traffic
october 1982
howick

One of the ‘spent places’, snapped by the Weathercat light-snappers.

grass lush
as cloud
on the
hills
sun
gives the
street
pause.

water-tense,
quiet awning
above the
sound of cars
or voice

the still damp
corner
the__spent places

timbre

timbre
january 2000, sydney

Cecil St, Ashfield, Sydney, upon which I dwelt, with thanks to the photographer.

the trees on this street
hold it_ arrest our wandering
in an air the sun_ the bared touch
of the sun has inflamed.

the trunks are forward
in space_ not upward through
the leaves of this summer
rememberless turning
a breeze

rain on the bark smells