Saturday, 13 November 2021

Five Poems by Terry Wheeler

 



red cat

 

clarity in

caritas

 

burns off 

the fog

 

of lies

 

outruns

the dogs

 

of war

there’s a

 

red cat in

 

all of us

that curls

 

around

the truth

 

 

political process 

 

(1)

 

the sky is

out of tune

 

bass notes

droning down

 

the sky isn’t 

 

falling merely

hovering as

 

chickens little

prattle do

 

their dance

 

waving wings

about leaving

 

behind a pile 

of feathers 

 

(2)

 

a violence 

of opinion 

 

a vanity

that turns

 

into mania

 

habitually

ritualistic 

 

a philosophy 

of self an

 

elf who roars

 

clicks heels

once too

 

often and

disappears

 

(3)

 

if lies aren’t 

convincing

 

why bother

nobody enjoys 

 

a tale going

 

nowhere myth

needs meat

 

can’t chew

thin air

 

fairy floss

 

leaves us

wanting

 

waiting for

a real rush

 

(4)

 

history has

a heavy hand

 

that rests

upon us

 

sometimes 

 

showing which

way not to go

 

where are

the pitfalls 

 

yet we in

 

ignorance 

or arrogance 

 

qualmlessly

leap off

 

 

pent

 

crow can’t 

sleep keeps

 

the night up 

with constant 

 

complaint

 

as humidity 

brews its 

 

thunderstorms 

regurgitating

 

an untamed 

 

percussion 

where wild

 

dreams may

find their way

 

 

glee

 

he whispered 

his madrigal

 

stitched with

the tyranny

 

of rhyme

 

aimed it at

the moon

 

where angels

sing of life’s 

 

mysteries 

 

dog next

door began

 

to bark in

counterpoint 

 

 

soliloquy 

 

when we

address

 

thin air

imagining 

 

a portal 

 

there’s a

faith in

 

soliloquy 

and who

 

may be

 

listening 

to our

 

innermost 

vulnerability






Terry Wheeler - After graduating from law school in the late 1980s Terry worked in the Australian public service for decades. He was inspired to write after seeing Michael Dransfield poems in The Australian newspaper when a teenager. Terry has been published in Australia and abroad since retiring. He lives in Brisbane when not travelling.

 

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