Friday, June 28, 2019

Haiku

He flops on the couch
like a grounded zeppelin --
big fluffy white cat. - Jeff Barnes

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Haiku

The town I am from
doesn't exist anymore.
It's there but it's not. - Jeff Barnes

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Haiku

Decaying city --
old buildings like broken teeth
bite the empty air. - Jeff Barnes

Monday, June 17, 2019

Australian Dream

Last night when I slipped into slumber
I had a dream about the Land Down Under.
I was surrounded by lorikeets and wallaroos,
wallabies, dingos, koalas, and emus.

I felt rather stoked and jolly.
I was out woop woop with my swag and brolly
when I encountered a kangaroo,
who hopped about while playing a didgeridoo.

I said, "Now I feel a bit drongo,
because I should have brought my bongos
so that i might accompany you."
"No wuckas!" said the kangaroo.

Then he finished playing his song
and jumped into a billabong.
He invited me to go with him.
He said, "Get yourself nuddy and we'll have a swim!"

"I never learned to swim,"  I said.
"I think I will just walk instead."
Just then a wombat and a platypus
drove up in a Volkswagen minibus.

I asked if I could bum a ride
and they said,  "Sure! Come on inside!"
We drove to the sounds of Accadacca,
then got hungry and stopped at Macca's.

Then a kookaburra swooped down on me
and carried me up to his old gum tree.
It was just a dream, or so I believed
until I woke up covered in eucalyptus leaves. - Jeff Barnes 

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Displaced

I'm a sunflower
growing out of an iceberg
drifting in a northern sea,

an octopus hanging
on the uppermost branch
of a California redwood tree,

a meanderer lost 
in the Sahara Desert
with no transport but a canoe,

an emu wishing
he were a wedge-tailed eagle,
flying in a sky of prozac blue. - Jeff Barnes

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Punchline

You took the idea
of heaven and hell
as seriously as
you took life,

which is to say
not at all.

You always said
that life
was a joke,

that there 
was no meaning
to it, only
a punchline

which everyone
is told
at the moment
of death,

and I believe you
on spring evenings
like this.

I feel your presence
when I laugh in time
with the croaking toad
outside my window. - Jeff Barnes