Five napkins lie abandoned On a table half-cleared Three Mine and my siblings’ spouses’ Are neatly folded back Into their rigid creases Like they’d never been used My sister’s Neatly folded too But against the grain Sits squarely Like the others In the centre of the placemat While the last My brother’s Lies egregiously discarded […]
(HOMAGE TO ROTHKO) He painted big to be intimate Abstract colour fields to capture the human spirit ‘A fugal arrangement’ he said ‘Stolen space on a rich man’s wall Tragedy Ecstasy Doom … and so on’ And on he went Filling canvas after canvas with feathered lines Of vibrating colour A window A doorway Or […]
It has sat elegantly in my room for most of my life Sixty years old if it’s a day I inherited it from my brother the day JFK died When he bought himself a proper desk―with drawers It saw us both, with distinction, through high school I got to keep it when I moved out […]
As a child When Mum wanted To nip down to the shop Without bundling me in the car She’d park my stroller in front Of the stereo and put on Beethoven’s Pastoral For one side of vinyl She’d be free of me Just long enough To buy a packet of tea As a teenager Heavily […]
Strange to see a blooming Jacaranda on an overcast day The soft violet vibrant against a grey sky A violent clash of colour that shakes the seasons awry The start of summer cast back to winter Jacarandas in flower remind me of my father His office in the city overlooked a garden Where they bloomed abundantly […]
You will be loved And loved most tenderly But not by the ones you love © Ian Lilburne 2010
Funny the way Once resolved resentments Resurface to recolour a relationship Parents get the worst of it That bond that even death can’t break What a bum wrap to suffer Such reversal of fate Such unrelenting scrutiny From one whose very breath Is contingent on yours? © Ian Lilburne 2010
There’s a line between Recovery And running away Rest And indulgence Of needing to find the centre From which all action springs And wallowing in its still course Of taking in And giving out Of reflecting And creating Of waiting for the right time And knowing when the time is ripe Of breathing in And […]
Three lines divide a tourist from a traveller Intention Effect Depth A tourist’s trip does not change them Or only accidentally They accumulate cities and sights Incrementally Names on a list But a traveller’s journey is inward and spiritual The places they visit catalysts for Introspection Reflection Discovery This can lead to change © Ian […]
It’s official God never was Stephen Hawking Did the maths And proved The Big Bang Fits perfectly The laws of physics From nothing Something came Our last privilege Stripped away From the void We were made © Ian Lilburne 2010