Selected poems
Earth from space
Beyond sunlit planes of sea and sand
Like the shade on my front lawn
Nightshadow creeps over continents
Cities light up in glowing clusters
While the deserts hide their campfires
Something exquisitely cosy
About the world
Tucked in for the night
Grace
There are in my life
Moments of grace
Sudden certainty that all
Of life is good
Times when the journey
Is on a throne
Carried high and forward
By those who love me
Like when I breathe
The cold moist air at the start of the rain
And the inward gasp
Draws with it the very earth
Brothers
today
i rode my bike
near the river
we’d known as kids
the houses hefted on stilts
legacy of the 50s floods
the tracks along the banks
as lonely as our empty house
i thought of something you said
as we chipped up to the eighth green
at cabramatta last week
we were near the creek
and you said
you couldn’t understand
why they didn’t clean it up
so people could put boats in and use it
your words I knew
hid heartache
our common pain
i saw again for a moment
rowboats for hire
kids dropping from a rope tied high in the trees
oars slapping in rowlocks as fathers
rowed their sunday families upstream
Nanna’s place
a beaded doily for the flies
glass louvres and lino floors
tea leaves in an old square tin
the dark varnished clock
its pendulum swinging silently
a springy ‘boing’
strikes the hour without argument
time passing as it should
albert as present now
as when he stood lathering his face at the mirror
or left his warm imprint in the kapok mattress
daisies struggle near the front gate
bobbing their heads in the breeze
ants march in procession across
the path below the empty letterbox
she still says no news is good news
With Chris and Tony at Bronte
as we stand at the rail
looking down on the old rock pool
I try to see myself a little boy in the water
but to look is to make distance
easier to be the little boy
see me
looking down fifty years later
we watch a crab mid-rock
out of sync with the waves
and a boy about to dive
rocking on the verge of letting go
as each hump of water bellies near his feet
he dives
i dive with him
the water enters my nose and throat
i am part of it
David’s work has been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, various anthologies and literary journals. He has performed his work at Varuna, NSW Writers’ Centre, Poets’ Union Venues, Radio Station 2NBC; and the Live Poets’ Society. His work has also been featured in Red Room projects and can be found online. He is currently preparing a collection for publication.
Main image: An aerial shot of Earth (NASA)