Four Poems

Harbour

The harbours outside the window
are now inside

transplanted to the rosy sky
from a day in bed that becomes

every other day in bed
weather that is neutral and calm

passes in a feline way I keep
the same hours as the cats

or the cats keep the same hours
as me sheltering grief, pregnancy

a general malaise that is bone-deep
and flourishing like water in cells.

The frame relinquishes to gravity
and cares for what it loves

holding memories, a forming body
how many times can you write

I’m tired and am always in a different
city while walking the same street

it reaches the point where my inner map
is unreliable – unsure even of the hemisphere

I’m in. It is drizzling and I’m walking
along the canal to a job nannying

when I kick a pool of water
that sends forth a vertical jet stream

I am as amazed at the display
as the couple walking

towards me – the three of us sharing
the wordless moment.

Another common disorientation:
I walk into the supermarket to find

aisles in a new formation and me
with a basket in place of us with a trolley

we would sometimes lob the
speciality Cheeses of the World

into paper bags and pass them off as
button mushrooms to later feast

like kings, giddy with the self-created
feeling of majesty

See? A memory can be epiphany.
I feed the bed of roses banana skins

and clip the old buds back to the next
five-leaf leaflet. When a rose loses

its petals, a star calyx remains. Green
shadow that the flower blooms from.

When I walk through the house
I expect other rooms to appear

Do you understand that they do?

Herb Greedy Avenue, Marrickville

I trip up the slow avenue
I didn’t realise I was in a different city
I didn’t realise I can’t sit down
That really is staggering
It blooms alongside of me
The wisteria and giant zucchini
which takes on the name of marrow
Carving it alone
In the marrow of it
This avenue isn’t too long

Cat’s Pantoum

Cat in curve, perched on the side table
She said, holding out her hand
House cat leans forward, leaps:
A dislocation finds its moment

She said, holding out her hand
Memories are and are not exact
A dislocation finds its moment
Can the experiment be summarised?

Memories are and are not exact
By experiment, a mean a desire to break
Can the experiment be summarised?
I cannot say it in a few words

By experiment, a mean a desire to break
And we have not proceeded, Sir,
I cannot say it in a few words
To want the same but different order

And we have not proceeded, Sir,
Still, walking back is elusive
To want the same but different order
Circularising modes of attention

Still, walking back is elusive
Cat in curve, perched on the side table
Circularising modes of attention
The cat curves into the fold

Two Days After Samhain

What a luxury
to have coffee and dates
in bed

to not worry about
rising late on a
Tuesday

to stroke the hair
on my chin and consider
painting

a portrait of the scene
though I don’t have a
monobrow

I draw in the cats
the roses the coffee
I am

drinking the five dates
that I’m eating, the child
swimming

the field of lavender
parting the house from
the street

now purple purple
purple when recently
just grey

I thought them ruined
from my neglect but here
they are

wild, not needing
intervention, take the lesson
watching

As the rosemary goes
to seed, May turns mauve
flowers

A year in a house
a protective spell
casting