A Levee to Absence the cards are brief this yearin shallow condolencea levee to absence,broken the scattered sorrowleft for salvagehow they talk of passing yet visit as though gentle asthe first faint callthe quiet summons to duty, steadfast the whether of breaksthe happiest dispersed days drag through cementmercury for the veins of uscaught in winter, … Continue reading A new poem at BLUEPEPPER

A Farewell by Sea from hand to hand the burnished soil passescupped by palms conveyed in fistto finally settle where dry throats breatheand cake the slow bake of hearts hereheld fast before the afternoon’s conviction we back into the wind to give you journeythe leather shoulder pieces clapagainst head and neck and skybelow us the … Continue reading A Farewell by Sea

It began unexpectedly in an old-fashioned way of coffee and wine. A mug left on a fence post was drained, and a glass of chardonnay went down in one slurp. Jon collected pieces of heavy dairy rubber and made a two-sided flip door into the house for her. Else would drop on to the old … Continue reading COP OUT 26 and the Trespass and Redemption of Jon Wilt Andersson

Did you drink in afterburnthat chalice searing out the onlookersloaded now in the hope of temperatureblast off unreached by normal livesas you leave this burdened atmospherefor even more high flying strataaway from this azure hopebelow your indulgencesstrung like gluten over working livesslowly moving in the clay domesticeach mass now not distinctor visible through corporeal guessworkreach … Continue reading Last jaunt millionaire leaving, turn off the lights

11 July 1916 - 21 October 2014 He is dead then, Cicero receivethe last testament of actionfor you and the believers to give warrant,leave the horses to stand in dreaming sleepno carriage is wanted.All receive the burning remembrancetouch the jet stream -behind doors for each in mourninglingers some small joyat the sight of that sheening … Continue reading Go with Gough, com rade

Soundlessly as you can hush the dawning birds stroke out the birth in soil and air, put back the worm to its house of gentle slumber where the rainbow sighs colourless, check for a lyric that hook and root tender as a baby’s fingers clasping unworded faith, seeded now poised for raindrops wake thin of … Continue reading If you plant this poem

but the sky a distractionof borrowed thingslet down this foolish glossover a blistered pillfor the taking and you know there areother ways to reach the barbercobbled lanes of yearseavesdropped overhangsthe sluice through wisteria a pomegranate whistling fallthe pride of lemons in full showa half-chewed day’s groanas the school bell calls it can grow another daya … Continue reading Going for a haircut

There's a Gordon Lightfoot songgoes I'm on my second cup of coffee and I still can’t face the dawnor something like that but it’s lovehe’s hung out on there when youngnow chase the days trying for delayholding on to every febrile bough a puff of cloud on a tongue of hoursand the silence of rem … Continue reading A new poem in BLUEPEPPER

                                                                   Sometimes it was my turnto buy the shilling’s worthof broken biscuitsfrom the new Summerhill shops then the Ryans and mewould cut through the last paddockfor a watermelonand the buckshot over our heads broke up like comets entering the atmosphere we caught yabbies with the tinand our crumbs we reckonedfloated all the way to China … Continue reading Darebin Creek Crimes, Reprise

Patience is disturbed by a knock at the door. “Hello, may I call you Pat”? asks a woman in a neat civilian suit, expensive with authority. “No, how do you do.” An obviously junior assistant shuffles foot to foot, looking down the street. “We are from the Office of Transition, and are here to ensure … Continue reading A Head on Their Shoulders