Max and lovely last line -shoots us back into now
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 25 October 2011 22:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: snap: Fairfield Park, Melbourne
Fairfield Park, Melbourne
Pausing at a red light near
the riverside park - it seems that
if I stare hard and long enough
at that tall monkey-puzzle tree
perhaps I can realize
its sharp distinctiveness
from those lovely, blander
(from this distance) trees nearby.
The sky shows through the puzzle -
its slim trunk draws the eye up
to the topmost spread of branches.
Every lateral branch reaches out
separately from the rest.
You could count them exactly.
They diversify at the tips
into prickly fingers
beyond counting, held firm
against whatever weather.
If I wasn't in the car, I'd
wander over, check for cones.
This could be the 'false monkey-
puzzle', Australia's bunya,
source of Aboriginal tucker,
presiding with its bounty
over communal feasting.
No longer. The riverside
restaurant advertises
Book Christmas Functions Now.
The car behind me's honking.
The light's turned green.
Max Richards
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