Three Poems by Geoffrey Aitken

heightened state

cloud shadows
chase
themselves
across suburban
parkland
where once
they escorted kangaroo
while grazing
on ample grasses
altered only when
herd surprise
invited stampede
but now
the winds detour
and those clouds
suffocate double-glazed modernity

relentlessly

First published in Tamba magazine, Issue 67, 2020 (a Goulburn Valley Writers Group publication).

a flippant bird?

it is dark
life’s irony
a contemptible tattoo
wry
and scalding
brief
but inflexible
turning our pages
expediently
gauchely
to diminish
&
disproportionately
disadvantage
as
it sings
its contagion

for a laugh

Originally published in Tamba magazine, Issue 68, June 2021.

backpacker

i
can no longer
fool myself
on bus
& train travel
pretending
to be a tourist
face
against the glass
in window watch distance
from
suburban collateral
on
public transport

i just can’t

Originally published in Tamba magazine, Issue 70, June 2022 (the final issue).

More on Geoffrey Aitken at https://poetryfeasting.com/