Published in New Verses from New Voices, the second collection of poems of the ‘New Voices’ poetry group, Wellington Square Press, Sydney, 2016, p. 31.
Coogee, Sydney, January 2016
Sea winds cruise overhead,
Cerulean skies, kicked red by
The bloody sun, recede.
Perplexed glances look skyward
See haemoglobin-grey
Clouds fat with humidity,
Full as swollen mosquitoes.
Roiling water cargo lours above,
Thunder rumbles long and hard.
A mad didgeridoo artist implores
His instrument as if dug to the ground
Vibrating the whole world
In groans, moans and fitful starts –
As lightning farts and earths the sky.
Rain drizzles and missiles and spits,
Slopes obliquely, slantindicularly.
Bubble drops burst and bounce,
Sizzle on hot car bonnets –
A delirium of big fat raindrops
Dance there for seconds
In hot pan griddle spins
And vapourise. Pitchforks. Buckets.
Sheets of water. Deluge. Then
Stops. Bellies up. Leaving edulcorated
Banksia trees, rainbow and wet
Sunshine, flared nostrils that smell
Petrichor. The downpour passing,
Low rumble dies in the distance.
