Poem 506

In 1985 (I think) this was accepted by Harry Ricketts to be part of a university chapbook he published occasionally called Writings … yesterday I got an invite to Harry’s leaving function at Victoria, joining the dots across almost forty years …

Brooding

Because I'm so calm
I breed hysterical children
round here the weather is always changeable
squalls twisting like knots
out of nothing
                             a series of knots
like a rope ladder
                                     bump
by bump
scouring their throats
periodic rains of sulphur and pumice

the weather changes
the wing aches
the purple stretched mouths
of my babies
like landing fields regurgitate
regurgitate
not what I fed them
at all