For Jan

She says it’s human nature to ruffle things up
just when they’ve settled down nicely.

It’s how we evolved, she says
how we covered the planet and wiped out other species

who contentedly lived their lives.
Don’t be so hard on yourself, she says.

Early civilisations crossed the Bering Strait
an arduous journey based on nothing but hope.

Some stopped in Alaska, happy to find food,
a constant shoreline

but the restless ones,
the ones who couldn’t bear to sit still

followed curiosity and found South America
made pottery, invented chocolate.

Eventually earned their siestas.
I know, I say, I should lighten up

because what can you say
to a mother who is always right.

This Möbius strip,
a strip of paper.
Twisted ends
a single-sided surface
not cylinder
nor ring
twisted
ends together.
Not knowing
your Topology
you’d never guess
how Möbius the strip
this strip of twisted paper.
This Möbius Strip.

I watch great gulls,
beaks curved like peeling knives,
pull mussels off the rocks
and drop them from a hover above the road.

The meat inside must be worth the work,
scraps of lunch surely remain unguarded
at the Fisherman’s Table.

In the harbour a looming ferry
tilts yachts in its wake.
While a loamy garden’s succulents
grow tough.

You pack
a wheelie suitcase
with clothes you bought yourself
years ago.

You take a stack of magazines,
the fruits of a year’s hard work
proof
she should be proud.

Three bananas for the road,
your cell phone charger
‘The art of war.’

She will drive for hours
to pick you up
pleased
you’ll quietly screw up

the list of questions
fifteen years’ worth
that’s been burning a hole
right through.

© Saradha Koirala 2010

Yesterday one of my year nine classes had the task of writing a poem from a selection of words – much like magnetic fridge poetry! Here’s one I wrote while they were busy:

Beyond silence.
The Milky Way scatters its ashes
in the crumpled night.

Alive, he soars, twists, blown
on a shimmering southerly
towards hills, peaks
beyond silence.

Faded reflections ripple
on a diamante surface,
while the terracotta moon
drags behind.

Until dawn tears a scarlet mouth
in the soft grey mist.

As if in time lapse
you shake your petals into being
quivering until the colour sets.

Indoors, daffodils wilt quickly
while out there everything –
the neighbour’s washing,
a lumbering bus
a sweating cyclist,
falling leaves
an escaping dog –
shhhhhhh
everything glistens.

© Saradha Koirala 2010

Bare-arm bearable when light winks through rheumy eyes,
but slow grey stealth brings plucked-goose flesh
on the howling.

In the teeth of it, the house cracks its knuckles and makes taut
its balustrade against a slobbering at the windows,
let me in licking at the sills.

Whole branches lose their grip,
recyclables paradiddle down the road.
Until my what big ears and tail brush hush.

All the better to fetal and hide
then cut open its belly and find me inside.

© Saradha Koirala from Wit of the staircase (Steele Roberts, 2009)

Things will be fine.
And then they’ll be hard for a while.
Maybe unexpected disruptions will occur,
dramas will be created by you
or those around you.

Then things will settle down again.
You will get tired
you will make mistakes:
errors of judgement or irrational decisions.
You will make the right decisions.

You will get sad. You will laugh.
You will mix your metaphors
and bumble along.
You will glance back briefly
to question the past

but mostly you’ll look up
and mostly you’ll be fine.

It feels like spring today! Here’s a clensing/gardening poem:

Trouble-shooting

Aphids, wooly aphids, white butterfly,
grass grub, caterpillar, carrot rust fly.

Botrytis, pythium, rust, spider mite,
mealy bug, leaf hopper, leaf roller, blight.

Borer, verrucosis, codlin moth, snail,
lacewing (passion hopper) pear slug, scale.

Powdery mildew, citrus brown rot,
leaf curl, die-back, thrips, leaf spot.

***

Pyrethrum, garlic spray, Derris Dust, squash,
Conqueror Oil, soapy cold wash.

Jeyes Fluid, wind break, Petroleum Jelly,
Malathion, Diazinon, Carbaryl, chilli.

Methylated Spirits, insecticide,
egg shells, copper spray, Oxychloride.

Bravo, Target, Captan, Orthene,
Cut out, pick off, burn, clean.