Red Gumtree 2

Like me you've taken roots 

In a foreign soil

We are migrants

Like me you've been pushed aside

On the nature strip

We are ostracized

Like me you are left behind

Watching the world go by

We are marginalised

Like me you are invisible

To the rushing world

We are vulnerable

Like me you are silenced

In the mundane whirlwind

We are made precarious 

Like me you are ignored

By the everyday crowd 

We are disposable

Like me in winter you lit up

People take pause

We made their day.

 Lucette C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Homeless

In open contrast to the continuous brouhaha 

Of the opposite river bank of festive atmosphere

By the Yarra River near Flinders Station

An eerie silence reigns over the uneasy slumber

Of a crowd rendered invisible

Under the open arches of the railways line

There's no distinction between them

Each of them isolated seeking solace 

Protected only by the sheer force of their numbers

Their oblivious respite will be only too short 

I don't know your story

I don't know who you were

I don't how you died

If the homeless have hung a banner

Laid flowers in your memory

You have my respect

Homeless but not heartless. 

Lucette C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Humanity 2014

Men, women and children

Are tortured and killed

In the name of war

For everything is fair.

Men, women and children

Are tortured and killed

In the name of religion

For everything is just.

Men, women and children

Are tortured and killed

In the name of ideology

For everything has a price.

When but when 

Will Men, women and children 

Learn to simply be human

And stop this carnage?

Lucette C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Love

Am I gifted with or am I cursed with you

Love, the unplanned master?

Freely minding my own business

Trying to survive in troubled times

I found you by the foot of a gumtree

Miserable and starving

I took you in for a quick feed

Fed you have and still feeding

You always demand more of me

As a daughter, as a mother, as a lover

Sacrifices made in your name 

May they be small or big

For ever contain pleasure mixed with pain

So explain to me how come you are so bewitching

That I cannot live without you?

Lucette C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

 

Red Gumtree

Red Gumtree

You bring solace on a grey winter day

 To the poor bee in search of nectar

Red Gumtree 

You bring solace on a grey winter day

To my poor eyes in search of colour

Red Gumtree

You bring joy on a grey winter day

To my poor soul in search of happiness

Red Gumtree

You bring joy on a grey winter day

By just being what nature intended you to be

Red Gumtree

I am grateful to you for sharing your bounty

On a grey winter day.

Lucette C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Sometimes

Sometimes I would like

The world to pause

Before the typhoon hit

Sometimes I would like

The world to pause

Before the plane crash

Sometimes I would like

The world to pause

Before the war invasion

Sometimes I would like

The world to pause

Before the repeal of carbon price

Sometimes I would like

The world to pause

Before violation of refugees law

Sometimes I would like

The world to pause

Before committing crimes

Sometimes I would like

The world to pause

Before mass kidnapping 

Sometimes I would simply like

The world to pause.

Lucette C. Bailliet

All right reserved

A sweet tooth

Protected by the window bay

I sip my morning coffee 

While outside 

The gutsy wind rattles

The garden Gumtree

Sitting on the fence 

The magpie warbles 

Flies away only to return with

A blade of grass as an offering

Strutting up and down the concrete path

Laying it, picking it up,

Before carefully resting it 

Disappears behind the bush 

Only to reappear with 

The biscuits we thought were not fit 

To be eaten and threw in disgust.

Wait a minute magpies feed on meat

I knew something was wrong with these.

So it turns out magpies 

Are not always thieving, are polite

And can have a sweet tooth too!

Lucette C. Bailliet

All right reserved

Arvo walk

A ray of sunshine amidst the bleak hazed sky 

And we are out to chase 

The long shadows of an early arvo

In the dominant icy winds of winter

Under their frozen breath 

The grey river gums shudder

The walk is brisk and to the point

No easy pleasant leisurely detour 

Just a quick glance

Admiring flora and fauna

Checking the black swans, ducks

And the moorhens community

Rushing uselessly to meet us for a feed

Soon the need for shelter is pressing

As the ears are tingling 

And the nose tip freezing.

Lucette C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Questions to a politician

For sure you can push

Your weight around

There is enough to go beyond

Power is alluring

It can be short or lasting.

In your case

Will it be a footnote 

In history or a major chapter?

The choice is yours

One lolly now or two in an undefined period.

Will it be your insatiable greed

Or your emotional intelligence

In control to deliver

A future with Australia as a leader

Or a meteorite fizzling away 

Adding dust to the hazy and crowded

Corridors of time? 

It seems you have chosen

Enjoy your five minutes then!

L.C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Riddle 2

The power of a four letter word

Unlike love, it's of all seasons 

Alike hate, it goes for all storms

Either soft as a baby's kiss,

It can caress your cheek

Or lash one in icy shards

Refreshing and life saving

Some pray for it to come 

While some dance to call it

Its destructive power is so awesome

You need shelter

Some pray for it to stop

Moods are as varying as the winds

When wild, it has no limits

It will admit no control

What is it?

I let you guess. 

 

Lucette C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Winter season

Bare and denuded beauty is part of it

The abundance of life has been cut back

To the essential minimum

Even light is shaded

So are deep sleep and death

Winter is here, installing itself

Without any invitation

Even undesirable

With no relief to see it go

The storms are harsh and unforgettable 

The weather is unrelenting

Finding shelter is aleatoric at best

Its icy fingers crush my heart and soul

If there is a spring

I won't see it

Cold and miserable 

Tired and painful

It is harder everyday 

To get going

It's time to say good bye.

L.C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Do you hear?

Do you hear?

They are singing

How beautiful love is.

Do you hear?

They are chanting

How life is rough and tough.

Do you hear?

They are marching

For a fairer world.

Do you hear? 

The screams of fury

They are the marginalised:

The young, the old

The unemployed 

The sick and troubled.

Do you hear ?

The cries of the homeless

And left to die

Of the aborigines

Who are denied their rights.

But you are not listening

Are you? 

For entitlements are yours

Not to be shared with that mob

That don't bring in taxes.

Not worth listening are they?

Still they sing,

Still they chant,

Still they march,

Still they scream,

Still they cry for your fall!

Lucette C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Winter rose

Tentatively by the fading 

Of a grey winter morning light

The pale rose bud slowly opens

To the cold misty dew.

Shyly unfurling itself

Denuding its heart to the cold teeth of the wind

Against which its thorns are no defence

At this time of the year

No heavy perfume wavers in the air

Its display will last only a few hours at most 

Long enough it's true

To receive compliments and admiration

For its own determination

To share its own beauty

Before burning from the heavy frost

Curious to see such a marvel

A rose in winter.

 L. C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Winter boredom

Winter is outside

Winter is inside

Its icy thorns pierce my heart

Its icy thorns pour cold in my bones

Snow hides the ground

Snow hides every thought

My mind goes deep in hiding 

My mind is dormant

I can't get warm, passion has left me 

I can't think it through

Procrastination is all round

Procrastination makes all fizz out

No goal is challenging

No goal is in view

Waiting for what?

Waiting to kick again

Cul de sac is where I am

Cul de sac is what I see

Motivation is missing

Motivation is gone  AWOL

Hello boredom!

L.C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Australian Winter 2014

Winter is gripping Australia

Its heart is frozen deep

Indifferent to the misery 

It spreads around

Under a dubious ideology

Of nothing but empty words

And high moral ground

It has become a land 

Of righteous bastards!

Orwell move over

We have the mighty Abbott

To lead us into Kafka's land

We have become the kings

Of the " langue de bois"

Where compassion morphs into torture!

Not in my name

That is what I say!

L.C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Winter

Cold and freezing

Time stands frozen

This is winter.

Wet and muddy,

Black puddles are deep

This is winter.

Greys and silver shade

Muted is the landscape

This is winter.

Gardens lack colours,

Denuded trunks show their scars

This is winter.

Breathing is painful 

Discovering new depth to lungs

This is winter.

Cozily ensconced in bed 

Hidden during the long nights

This is winter.

Dreams are still possible 

Dangerously short is life

This is winter.

Light is short even by the fireplace

Waiting for spring

This is winter.

L.C. Bailliet 

All rights reserved 

 

Winter games

Friday morning and here it comes

The banging and booming of the bin truck

The wind observes quietly 

Looks fun though

Swish ,the truck stops

Bang, the prongs lift the bin

Pwish, the bin is lifted airily

Bim, bam, boom the bin is upside down

Emptying its guts in the waiting skip

Badaboom the bin is dropped on the nature strip

Still standing on its two wheels

Vroom the truck passes to the next bin.

In the tintitmarre wake of the bin truck

Disappearing around the corner

The wind gathers itself and let a magisterial Whoosh 

Just for the fun of it,

Loves that sound

Whoosh,silence,Whoosh 

Ffrush branches and dead leaves rustle

A sudden roar ends in a fracassing pang

The first bin hits the concrete on its side

The wind blows and gushes all around

While the trembling and shivering bins await 

They might stand upward and still like on parade

They know what's coming

Not one will be left standing

The wind is playing bowling alley today

Their empty carcass will be there to show

Its power and how rough it is,

It owes no favour, no mercy

It's a waste to long for clemency

For none will be given

Today the wind is having fun.

L. C. Bailliet

All rights reserved

Colours of the night

Against the inky sky

The acute vivid emerald light

Interrupted brutally by the strident orange

Turning to the blazing red

Passing starry light by starry light

Along the road following

The unending elongated double carmine trace

Of traffic in the distance in front of us.

The useless displayed competition 

Of the apple green sign of Woolworth 

Answering the firefighter red of Coles sign

Calling to putative shoppers

In the dread of a Sunday suburban evening.  

The blaring blue pumps of a petrol station at the crossroad

Only disturbed by the passing lights of the suburban train

Indifferent to all and sundry but its destination.

Those are the colours of the night .

 All rights reserved

L.C. Bailliet