i watch them
these ancient, raging, anarchistic,
masochistic, sarcastic,
cigarette smoke inhalers
who hurl self-neglect
into the passing crowd
as an offering of personal protest
and who tender addicted seconds
via sensually pursed lips
blamelessly but directly
with likeminded accord
and then,
i reflect knowingly
on my own unfiltered time
governed by the pack

First Published in ‘New Poets 19’ FSP, 2018

i rarely use
the services of the bank
but today
i stood in the teller queue
behind a young man shopper

in his recyclable
high vis carry bag
was a single 1.25L popular brand
soft drink and
a largish bag of potato crisps

i couldn’t help noticing
his up-sized personal account
his high-risk investment portfolio
recommending to me
a life with too little interest

First published in “Fleurieu Flow” 2019

she sits, uniformed
like her classmates;
delivery, foreign
by most measures
as total freedom
is her life inheritance
at this age, before ceremony –
stories of country and
multiple languages fill her head
but English is difficult
and on community
not complementary to business

school is outcomes’ based
results and attendance driven
borderline enculturation
by the dominant narrative

she has 70,000 years
ancestral connectivity

already, she is anything but uniformed!

First published by Friendly Street in “New Poets 19” 2018

“Mental health patients waiting for hours,
sometimes days in emergency departments”

wait
in emergency
disoriented, over-anxious or
psychotic –
cope with delayed treatment
overseen by busy, tired
but incapacitated medical staff
unable to assess –
underinvestment

present
in the community
disoriented, over-anxious or
psychotic -
lunge at an underprepared
attending police officer
and expect instantaneous,
full, unqualified attention –
overinvestment

time is not on our side

First published in “New Poets 19” by FSP, 2018

human resilience
confounds,
offsets comic hopelessness
where unworldly conditions
remain under-reported
and sees survival instinct
rebirth,
on the distraction
of
a
single
raindrop’s
pat.

Published ‘Right Now’ August ‘19
http://rightnow.org.au/creative-works/arrhythmic/

the positioning
of climate change deniers
begs a question:

“how can my feet remain grounded
while i keep my head above water?”

First published in “New Poets 19” by FSP, 2018