MIDSUMMER

The heat of midsummer brings you to mind,

Your brown skin warm and fiery to my touch.

I reach in quest for you but fail to find

Those silky supple curves I want so much.

Sun-filled skies spin me to your eyes of light,

Shining as if the stars were all stored there,

And then my thoughts turn to your smile so white

Before I see in visions your black hair.

In the talking wavelets on the sea’s shores

I hear your voice whisper love on a kiss,

And, as the day slows down, dusk’s darkness pours

The sounds of you breathing in sleep’s drenched bliss.

For now I’ve quenched the ceaseless seasonal heat

Recalling one who makes daydreams complete.

ALIEN

I am no longer an Australian.
How can I be a member of this tribe?
I face this nation as an alien,
My birthright slashed and burned and cast aside.

If I could suicide I'd catch the breeze
And vanish into distant fiery skies
That glow at sunset just above the trees,
Then I would rise to kiss death's ochre eyes.

IN THE DOCK

I live shackled and weeping in the dock

Of the courtroom of woeful omissions,

While those who hold keys to my chains and lock

Cast slurs by way of brisk expositions.

It seems the judgement of imprisoned fools

Is deemed always and evermore impaired.

Respect cannot be won under their rules,

Even esteem must nevermore be shared.

As I seek sleep but instead fight my chains

I work through each day of the nightmare time.

How could I have done more to force a change?

Why am I lower than the heirs of crime?

Now the baying crowd prowls around the dock

And calls my name to shame and then to mock.

DOG BEACH

I walk the beaches of a skin-cancered country,

A land where a nihilistic refrain reigns,

Where the youth are iced and insolent,

Parents have pock-marked arms and collapsed veins.

I wander the streets of cities soiled by sleaze,

Paying high prices set by the casino’s hogs.

Rip-off merchants outnumber honest vendors

And old age pensioners have fewer rights than dogs.

I watch to see if our rulers respect our history

And observe only snouts seeking the richest trough.

It’s seems Orwell was right about trusting pigs;

We’ve not had a real leader since the days of Gough.

I would wish for death but I can’t afford it

And I don’t want to be a burden when I expire.

So I’ll find another country that will tolerate me;

I’ll go there to die and donate my sins to its fire.

MAIMED

Nobody is living
And no one is dead
In the mangrove mud
Of my maimed mind;
But some have gone ahead
And others were left behind.
There is no scorecard
And no way to win merit;
Some have all the luck,
While others can inherit,
But I'm stuck in the muck.
There are no signs of karma -
The world looks much more like
Sad chapters of Job's drama -
Falsehoods on every speaker's spike.
Hopes are mowed down like saplings
Before their leaves can form,
The waters round them dappling
With raindrops of an arriving storm.
Only the swamp survives
To swallow the next explorer.

RAYONG

As if I had lost track of the sun’s path

It showed up when my eyes were fixed elsewhere,

The sky lit up but I could not see past

Your brown skin’s glow, the gloss of your black hair.

We soon could see the water’s edgy glare

Flashing in and out of view as we searched

The shores for shade and breeze, tables and chairs,

Beneath the dormant flame trees where we perched.

We dined on fresh-caught snapper and sweet crabs

Within sight of the fishing fleets bedecked

With multi-coloured flags and emptied nets

Parked on the high-tide mark as if they’d wrecked.

By Thailand's Gulf I ate and drank and smiled -

Happy in your home - glad to be exiled.

FLAGS

The first franchise of love is honesty -
Questions answered and strict respect of space,
Solemn granting of life before this time
And tales of pasts unknown sketched in a face.
We've passed those tests and flown our coloured flags
Atop poles we'd not seen against old skies
That held our stare as we reached for the air
In worlds apart before we seized our prize.
Now I pray I'm the man you chose to love
And I will make your plan my favourite task
Because I know you seek to be to me
More than I could have ever dared to ask.