beyond the glass, rain
intensifies in sheets wild
by light poles and 
car yards, stammer of traffic
as we huddle the dinner’s remnants
and restless chandeliers.

one eye on the conditions
we’re counting umbrellas (1)
considering desserts (4) 
sticky, drunk, deep fried, pronged with sparklers 
and how poetry elevates everyday language
the crackle of electrics and lit. things.

weather app shows mint and mango zones
rolling over our coast
shows renewed river rises 
floods flood floods
water down the water glass.

we shrug into cardigans 
and summer throw-overs
tarry at the entrance 
the waiter in silk pyjamas 
bows, hands together — sawadti kha diners
Buddha says appearances are an illusion —

yet here we are beguiled

the puddled carpark
the servo, native grasses 
tall as the tanami in spring
a way through to
the cemetery roses 
heavy heads before the rain.

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Image: Photo by Jolly Yau on Unsplash. Sawadti (pronounced with long last syllable) – is a Thai greeting, farewell and generic blessing; the Tanami is a desert in north west central Australia; and Jasmine Rice is a Thai restaurant in Wollongong, ‘almost an institution in this town’ some say: not that you need all this explanation.

For music this morning, here’s the Australian Chamber Orchestra with Johnny Greenwood’s composition ‘Water‘ (Youtube).

This poem was written on unceded Wodi Wodi land.