Cath Vidler
　

The park

Cleanly defined, like a rule book.

Lines of earth, sky, tree, grass,
discrete, complete

with occasional neat
animations

of dogs,

a frisbee's brisk whisk
of the air.

　
At Taronga Zoo

1. Echidna quills filter the winds.
2. A free-arranging emu is overly familiar.
3. A tortoise moves like a secret.
4. The vicious seal pool trebles with anticipation.
5. A cable car sags like a burdened planet.
6. A submerged crocodile turns, its tail a slow goodbye.
7. The carp pool is brimming with sliver and gold.
8. A bar-owl flashes its heart at the crowd.
9. Koalas warms the eucalyptus joints.
10. A peacock reveals the right to party.
11. Zebras calmly stand their ground.
12. Hunched chimps concentrate the heat.
13. Wallabies loll like an indulgent audience.
14. Harbour views continue to unwrap their surprises.

-poem first published at Quadrant Magazine

　
On The Balcony

a jade plant explores
the air,
tastes possibilities
with its leaves

*

a succulent thrusts
tethered bouquets
in opposite directions

*

a mysterious fern
sweeps the floor.

*

railings think linear.

*

the view raises up
stops short
like a frozen wave.

*

sky consumes
left-over spaces.
　

The Oval

Foliage marches backwards
from the margins, colluding
like a language

under steep blue sky. Clouds
are scattered, inert zooms,
swallowed whole by light.

The sun, a sheer massive,
poises on the edge of its seat,
missing nothing.

*

The oval is frayed, like a worn
drum. Arrhythmias feast
on its surface, strung out

to curvatures; path, road
and luminous swells of park
before the bay's bold

brochure, thrust with boats,
receding into fine print
energies; ripple, glint, breeze.