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The Poetry of Alison
Cassidy
*****
Train to Neverland
by Alison Cassidy
T'was on the train to neverland
With scenery lush and vibrant
The rhythm of the words
Oiled the wheels of your ego.
What a ride it was!
But the train lost control
And left the tracks
Zigzagging wildly
Across the countryside.
You couldn't stop the momentum
So you leaped into my arms
And we stood, hand in hand,
Watching the inevitable disaster.
*****
And the Trees Roared
by Alison Cassidy
What a blusterous morning!
(images of Owl's house)
What a wild and woolly morning!
What a wind-moaning
face-freezing
push-me-pull-you sort of morning!
I fought my bucking umbrella.
The air was strewn with bark
and the trees roared
like a woman in labour.
A faint murmur of fear
hissed conspiratorially
What if?
Remember owl's house?
What if?
I clung to my dog's lead...
Later that day
seventy trees
crashed to the ground.
Seventy trees
uprooted in their prime.
Seventy trees
from the womb of their mother
untimely ripped!
The next day
when the wind had died,
I offered a silent prayer
to life
and my dog.
*****
A Sky for all Seasons
by Alison Cassidy
morning has broken
stretched above the autumn trees
a soft quilted sky
the sky is frosty blue
bare branches drip winter tears
sweet melancholy
springing through the grass
this sunny jonquil morning
the sky is smiling
summer sand burning
summer legs sprinkled with salt
wide dazzling sky
*****
Still Life
by Alison Cassidy
They sat
motionless,
back to back
in the bright ginghammed cafe.
(Their carers had left them
to pay for scones and tea)
He stared with empty eyes
at the blue green hills
spread out like a quilt.
Her eyes were empty too
as she studied her hands
gnarled into soft claws.
Two strangers
who didn't know
where they were
or who they were
or why they were sitting
so still
so still
in the bright ginghammed cafe.
I folded my unread newspaper.
A small wisp of distant smoke
curled like a ribbon.
*****
Walking Without Eyes
by Alison Cassidy
Sunday morning
before birdsong
I walk without eyes -
just sound and silhouette and shadow.
My boots crunch
through fallen leaves -
Ella urging at her lead.
A feather breeze brushes my cheek.
Her feet rat-a-tat upon the road.
A series of eerie groans
from the throat of a giant eucalypt
punctuates my reverie
and the sudden bark of a local dog
startles momentarily.
It's been a long sleepless night,
but for this precious half an hour or so,
I let go my discontent
and rub the words of anguish
from my mind...
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