Kit Kelen #188 - the dairy

188

the dairy

(1948 – 1988 – 2016 – ?)

possum stink to the place

and the ants discouraged

(business model hive

now smashed)

parts of a piano linger

as they will

one lounges

in the paint here, toxic

the slab is seismic underfoot

see where continents have shifted

it's out-of-doors that heals you

and plenty of it here

ghosts of ourselves before in bed

and now we're working through

how many logs is a night?

ask the wind

little rats once ran the rafters

all were entertained

the lounge room carpet landing strip

o summer without screens

creosote puff of the past

from days of spliff

this could be the old shoe

of caterpillar conversation

eat me, drink me

magic dragon

mushrooms easter after rain

a candle-catch of shelter then

was and is carved

of termite ancestry

it leans from the breeze,

from fools' fires and anger

and yet it stands

it stands!

and for reference - the original poem of the dairy - from 1988 -

The Gingerbread House

Markwell, via Bulahdelah

At the Court of King Caractacus

In the arms of Boadicea, under

A frayed old sarong for kissing ­

Paint you a weatherboard hutch

For thewinter. Out in the sticks

Where the bush stumbles backfrom

The sea, at the shire's poor border

All roads run into dirt. After

The wet I've melodious trees and

This first gust of winter. On

A timbery hill where the paper

Moths breed, failed branches kindle

Into piles. Down tools! Take in

This oxygen, all the view it offers:

Not a beast in the field or a cloud

In the sky. The dam, the tank,

The larder's full. What if we've

Empty coffers? Tenderest veal

Bereft of kin wail over the hills.

And far away in the house of milky

Recollection it's twilight. Mattock,

Wooden spoon ungendered bake a fond

Repast. Replete before a glowing

Hearth, mice tread the waking night

Away. Thus troths are pledged 'twixt

Tentative hearts forever and a day.