Up For Grabs

Morning Walk

I went out into the world

with a world draped around

my shoulders. Dark

misshapen, crooked

and monstrous. Full of wars

and rumours of wars.

I came back with a world

in my pocket.

Ready to tee off

the day.

About the size of a new

shiny golf ball

without

the dimples.

Jeff Guess page 9

Up for Grabs

At exactly 6.42am

every morning

I collide smoothly

with the Gawler to Adelaide train

as it slides just beneath my feet

on Railway Bridge

but we are such opposites

the train so pedestrian

and predictable

knows its own lights and stations

an unchanging timetable

whereas my steps from here

are capricious and impulsive

I make my own beginnings and endings.

Jeff Guess page 10

Hope

This morning

the kookaburras

are taking over the morning

their beaky laughter

an antidote

to this dry hot morning

their birdsong

a long chuckle

of intransitive verbs

hitting on the noun

for something

some have given up hope for

cold dark mornings

with rain on the glass.

Jeff Guess page 80

©Jeff Guess 2017