2010+, look

I sit through
the doublebungers katherinewheels romancandles
the flags names arrays of light
the patterns attached to buildings and bridges
the sputterings and mutterings
the again and again and agains set to classic hits

waiting for
the seconds of silence
the fizzing upward rush
the half-breath pause
the one
sky-filling
perfect
plain
chrysanthemum

Among the hundreds,
     one leaf hanging.
Pink hibiscus
     flowers, just showing
the sun their red
     tongues, their pollen-blobs.
Morning sun, the
     most lovely: that angle

of the rays, and the dust not
     yet as risen
as it is at evening. The world,
     the hibiscus bush,
the city: cleansed by darkness.
     The light making
a communion of shadow and shine
     among the gathering
of leaves, branches, blossoms,
     cobwebs, feathers.

Among the hundreds,
     one leaf hanging.
As she runs
     in her business suit to the train
a woman is brushing
     her hair. Above the street

a single bird has come
     to sit on a wire.
Its silhouette, a comma,
     underlined,
inscribes a dark pause
     on the whispering sky.

feet in the river
moon in the sky
that’s all

South Perth foreshore, 12 December 2019, 9pm

There once was a cat in a box
who may have been dead or may not.
There was no way to tell —
then she started to smell.
That poor collapsed cat in a box.