Song of the Actuarial Dollar Chicken   Soft generic birds you roast well after you have laid cartons of eggs …

A Note to Alvaro You can be happy in Australia as long as you don’t go …

The Fragrance of Lemons for Sarah Colquhoun   I loved the Meyer lemon tree planted by my neighbour friend, a …

Larkman   All the fledgling lark knows is the dark wooden box nailed shut but for two …

Homage   As David Hockney wears odd socks I had thought that I would too; Sort of an homage …

14/2   I almost managed it this year almost forgot it was not quite thirty years ago we married in …

The One Day of the Year 'The One Day of the Year' is an Australian play …

Freedom   Think fredome  mair to prys Than all the gold in warld that is   We saw the invaders …

Four Frivolities   1. Ballad for the Fart Tax. (5/9/2003, Farmers blocked the streets of New Zealand’s capital, …

Houston Riot of 1917 Gentlemen and generals, members of the Bar, I ask you to hear and …

Gold No knees-up, post staph. Will this grey thread see me out, or this blue one, or the …

Banished Banished to his desert island For a thousand thousand aeons (Trust me guys, he had it coming), Lex …

Because, like the weather   Because, like the weather it colours this place you do not notice. Maybe, …

The Written Word The spoken word can sometimes be forgotten, but phrases carefully set out in hard clear …

A Restoration? In January 2017, the regional court of Wuppertal, Germany, acquitted Arab arsonists guilty of …

One twenty over eighty   Systolic / Diastolic— I’m watching the machine. I like the sound and science of …

A Teacher Hopes It’s not that he’s stupid, It’s not that he’s a pup, It’s not that he’s …

Ballet at the Sydney Opera House: Thinking about Slessor   At Interval we take our bubbly outside …

  Bird Haiku   i The overhead wire— a pair of welcome swallows singing in the sag.   ii Willy wagtail— subsiding for a second into …

Button and Bolts Mother’s button jar is nine inches high on the shelf above the wood stove …