Reticence

At Pellegrini's the old waiter's eyes

shine bright at the sight of your baby blues

and people with coffees and football talk

swirl slowly around, dancing like extras -

we exit to a lane, and falling rain

The ghosts of past victories and defeats

accompany us through the galleries

and we move apart, ever conscious of

our proximity to, and wary of

the tragic empress, the vain dictator

Over  aged red wine and fillet le boeuf

rationalities are voiced and agreed

yet still an enveloping mist descends

a fugitive truth seeks sanctuary

in the hazy half light of reticence

I leave your bed before dawn touches us

I have been so lost and now fear the fall

Napoleon at the field of triumph

rears his white stallion and turns his head

noticing I hang by gossamer thread

Everyone

Everyone's gotta be somewhere
Harmonies within a symphony
In golden light and deep dark shadows
You'll find many small fragments of me

A billion drops within an ocean
Countless photons fire the starry skies
A lifetime's built from whips of air
All our buried feelings, fill every lover's sigh


I have been woven into fabric
A single solitary thread
A life crossed by so many others
A cloth transcending life and death


I am dreamed into finite being
During a dream of eternal peace
Am I the dream? Am I the dreamer?
Will awakening mean release?


I know you recognise me
My brand is seared into your grain
Our dreams are dreamed together
Seperate yet together, we eternally remain

Balnarring Beach

I've been kicking these same old stones for years

The general store at Balnarring Beach

Near where it is said Andy and Meg owned

A home on Cliff Road, perhaps the new one

Above the point where I met the dolphins

That chilled Spring day when I surfed it alone

Sometimes I walk and at others I run

Along dusty back roads and Merricks Beach

Today I take it slow, noticing waves

And dancing seaweed in shallow rock pools

Philip Island still wears the morning's mist

The sand is strolled by old people and dogs

A perfunctory nod, a gappy smile

Speaks of hidden longing for youth long passed

I wonder how long will it take the tides

To expose bones I've buried on my shore

Locked with a brass key is the seaman's chest

Consigned to the deep my tired confession

Here comes the Son

Driving through driving rain
You beside me singing
"Here Comes the Sun"
School uniform and scruffy shoes
What great good did I ever do
To earn the priceless gift of you
My son?

Out of Service

Shadows hide shadows
Sinister shapes haunt stairwells
The lift a yawning chasm
Swift and light the tread

Flirt

Are we flirting yet?
Or is this idle chit chat?
Words spin and dissolve.

Ballarat Road

Western Highway cruise
Brod Smih's Dingoes and sunshine
Bitumen and blues.