a dreamy inside edge played on to
a tree full of clown-face rosellas
at 5am the green is UHD perfect
moist mown to a checkerboard place mat
where celebrity chefs hand out tabs inscribed
with smiley faces or hearts saying ‘I love you’.

Growing up I thought that somehow
we’d find a way to roll this beauty
to a new Eden and shuck our clothes forever.
Now there’s the mass of time rolling in from the desert,
sheets stiff as a board soon as they’re pegged
and verbs and invective over nouns (like truth).

Summer’s sunburnt bodies tramp the windblown sand
up from a sea so flat you can lift its lip like a tablecloth.

A piece on summer in Australia inspired by the eternal Jim Maxwell calling the first cricket test (Australia v. India) in Adelaide. The sound of summers from my childhood and my now middle-to-older age. You can listen to all the action on our ABC. I was also thinking about this wonderful image from Dali, the brightness of the light and the seductive idea of sleeping in the shade of the sea.

And no, for the December playlist, I’m not going to link you up to Lana Del Rey’s eponymous song, rather I thought you’d like Schubert 4 hands.