Tag Archives: australia

yap

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he was a awfully small dog
with an awfully large voice
we were already riding 
President Salazar's train
from Porto to Vesuvius
within earshot of
an Australian entrepreneur
so we hardly noticed
A small, scruffy terrier mix dog with its mouth open in mid-bark, paws on the window sill, looking out of a moving train. The window frames a lush, green valley in Portugal, with a river winding through rolling hills, capturing the dog's enthusiastic reaction to the scenery.

 

Tide Pool #3: Yellow Menace?

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A top-down, close-up photograph of a bright yellow marine growth, with frond-like formations, in a low tide pool on the Mornington Peninsula, Australia. The organism's alien-like appearance is highlighted in the post's title, 'Yellow Menace?', which humorously explores the theme of xenophobia and prejudice.

Tide Pool #2: Life on Mars?

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A top-down, macro photograph of a rocky tide pool on the Mornington Peninsula, Australia, focusing on a weathered, iron-rich sandstone rock with a rugged, reddish-brown surface. The image's color and texture, which evoke the landscape of Mars, directly reflect the post's title, 'Life on Mars?', continuing the theme of alien-like discoveries on the coastline.

Tide Pool #1

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while watching for weedy sea dragons
where reefy sea grass ought to flow
instead this one peeks
in proof of alien life?
A macro photograph of algae fronds almost like a living crab-like organism, resting on a wet, rocky surface in a tide pool on the Mornington Peninsula, Australia

standley’s chasm

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A vertical photograph looking up from the floor of Standley Chasm, also known as Angkerle Atwatye, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Two towering, reddish-orange rock walls rise steeply on either side, their vertical textures emphasized by the narrow strip of bright daylight that enters from above. The light powerfully illuminates the sandy ground at the base of the chasm and the top of the rock faces, while the rest of the walls are cast in deep shadow. The image conveys a dramatic sense of scale and enclosure within this significant geological feature of Central Australia.

Ms. Ida Standley 
flinty with resolve
first schooled
the mulatto castoffs in Alice
till the attentions of leery townsmen
dogging her female charges 
drove her bulwark westward
to Ray's Creek 
near the chasm  
the namby magma stretchmark
once extruded through quartzite
worn now down to naught
great Australian orogeny
and misogyny alike
bowing to force of nature
leaving the base cleft

eco fail

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A close-up photograph of a dark, gnarled tree trunk with a twisted, curved shape, standing amidst a lush, green wooded area. The image's focus on the raw, natural form of the tree serves as a backdrop to the poem, which humorously explores a moment of ecological guilt and anxiety.

i threw out my crust at lunch
flung it in the bush
only to have nightmares
of headlines years on
native australian species blighted by
strange ailment 
thought to have been 
introduced by 
half-eaten ham and cheese 
sandwich
Cape to Cape Walk; Day 4