Snow Globes
Whole worlds
trapped
inside curved
glass.
White flakes
rest dormant,
waiting.
A determined
disturbing hand
shaking the globe,
just to watch the
chaos.
****
Along clogged
bitumen freeways to borders
crowded vehicles
of all types stop
not moving for
hours then days,
trying to escape a
new war.
In desperation,
women and children
drag suitcases or
push prams
walking to escape
with now all that
they own.
Men left behind
ordered to fight.
Invading troops
surround cities
as bombs rain,
while snow falls.
Purple Jacaranda Flowers
Jacarandas
in full bloom
cascade
a purple carpet
on
the paved footpath
extending
into the gutter
and
shower a parked car
unmoved
for days.
A
dog on a lead
walked
past the quiet house
sniffs
a tree trunk
before
being dragged on
by
its annoyed owner
wearing
headphones
listening
to loud music.
The
postman on a red bike
in
a yellow fluoro jacket
pushes
mail into the filled letterbox
as
spewed advertising material
wilts
on the ground underneath.
Noisy
miner birds argue in bottlebrushes
which
neighbours trim
on
their side of the fence line
not
noticing a lawn
becoming
unusually unkept.
Blinds
in windows remain down
undetected
by cars passing on the road,
some
many times a day.
Unseasonal
storm deluge
washes
the car clean.
As
skies clear,
the
trickle of flowers upon it begins again.
Hometown Visit
Walking through
the cemetery, recognising names
which spark
recollections of faces from years before,
discussing stories
and memories
of times when our
lives and theirs intersected.
Finding lichen and
moss on headstones of family members’ graves
obscuring names
and dates,
scraping them
clear to allow unobstructed recognition.
Fresh cut flowers
placed in pots
that would soon
whither then be blown away,
but for a short
time signified that someone was remembered and missed.
Thoughts soar to
an unkempt huge front yard
where unpruned
rose bushes grew tall,
pathways and
garden beds had become overgrown with dense weeds
alongside
geraniums that ballooned,
the sculpting hand
of its gardener long absent.
Memories journey
further to a not often used large lounge room
with aging carpet
and a bulky dusty couch,
bluestone walls
surrounded by a corrugated iron shady veranda
leading to an
outside toilet around the back.
Then reminiscences
drift to an always welcoming kitchen
where an ample
range was continually burning, additional logs were often added,
cups of tea were
endless
and the small TV
on the fridge was permanently on.
Time to leave,
walking back to
the car in silence.
Cluster Bomb
In
a dark night sky
gun
fire rings in the hills surrounding the city,
another
hostile explosion shocks the bleak
with
a flash igniting the dull.
Innocents
wait in the gloom, not for sleep,
that
abandoned them days before,
but
for the crashing down of their walls and roofs.
Immediately
after the first burst
other
bombs flower from the initial vile
spreading
further lethal blooms,
smaller
flashes signal additional grief and ruin.
Over
frozen white grounds tanks roar,
trucks
full of invading troops advance
while
the bodies of the dead caught in a new war grow.
Travelling North
Starting out,
filled multi-lane
motorway
funnels traffic
out of the city,
exits siphon
sweltering commuters
to new swelling
suburbs
of the
ever-increasing sprawl.
Advancing,
petrol stations
with fast food outlets
become the last
stands
of the bulging
urban,
eave to eave
buildings give way
to fenced fields,
the busy dual
carriageway
becomes a two-way
thoroughfare
with decreased
traffic density.
Further,
glimmering heat haze
on the blistering bitumen
creates mirages of moisture,
always far away.
Progressing,
abandoned decaying
buildings,
once shops and
homes
within hundreds of
metres
of redirected road
sections,
contain nothing
but graffiti
and vague
memories.
Continuing,
crows pick
impatiently
at a small crushed
carcase,
dazed by the easy
meal
only moving just
in time
after blasts of
the car horn.
Travelling north,
saltbushes sway in
seared soil…
the journey
continues
still a long way
to go…
Rob McKinnon lives in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. His poetry has previously been published in ‘Freedom/ Rapture’ Black Bough Poetry, ‘Adelaide: Mapping the Human City’ Ginninderra Press, ‘Messages from the Embers’ Black Quill Press, Backstory Journal (Swinburne University), The Saltbush Review (Adelaide University), Wales Haiku Journal, and other online and print journals.
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