Celery Tree

A strange plant rises from
the bowl of water on my bench.
Tall green stems surge from
the thick tap route chopped
short back at the paddock.
A frothy head of greenery
sprouts from the top of these
tall broad green stems like
so many narrow trunks.

New trunks push their way
up inside the older trunks.
Why not put out branches
from one centre trunk?

What a confused plant !

Yet its stems add a
wonderful taste to my
food when chopped,
stirred in and cooked.

I for give celery its oddities.

Previously posted August 2017.

Capsicums

 

Red orange yellow green clumps
of bobbles and bulges display half
a rainbow in their shop display
a spread of many colours
covering hollows squeezed
out of shape by a cook’s hands.
Colourful capsicums setting
our meals ablaze.

Slicing through their bulges and
pockets the pleats round their
stalks, white seeds flicking
out as the knife cuts through
flesh and airy hollows.
So strange after chopping
slicing and dicing worldly
everyday vegetables.

Still they reward us with
unique flavours and colour
when the knife’s work is done.

Previously posted August 2017.

Territory

Mayhem of loud squawks
shrieks bangs in the driveway
drew me to the window.

Two blackbirds glared at
each other, orange beaks agape,
tails upraised, feet dodging
in little sideways hops.

They shrieked again
hurled themselves at each
other as one dodged
sideways crashing into
the moulded metal fence
with a booming echo then
dropped like a stone as
the other bird swooped
just above its head.

On and on they fought
swooping ducking diving
around each other
crashing to the ground
hurtling into the fence
with unabated screams
shrieks squawks until
one finally flew away
over the neighbours’ houses.

…. leaving the prize of
uncontested ownership
to his opponent.

Previously posted August 2017.

Cold

At nights my little heater
usually so efficient struggles
to warm my weather tight flat
inside its thick lined curtains
as icy air blankets the
driveway outside.

Icy air stands like a wall as
I step outside into the frigid
current to put rubbish in the
bin beside the back door.

My cosy bed heated by the
electric blanket is only
warm enough for me to sleep
in with bed socks on my feet.

Snow lies thickly on the
nearby mountains as wind
and swirling air distribute
fine icy crystals carried by
Antarctica’s ferocious blasts.

I am cold !

Previously posted August 2017.

Rain

Spring rains continued into
last summer keeping our
temperatures down, soaking
our land in watery Autumn.

Now winter has brought
icy rain and gales, vast
drifts of southern snow.

Across our waterlogged sodden
land, loose rocky scree and
soil shift down rocky hillsides
steep gullies and cliffs, pouring
stony soil and rocks on to
main highways through the
Manawatu Gorge to Napier,
Ngauranga Gorge into
Wellington, along Kaikoura
coast to earthquake
shaken Christchurch.

After all our shaky isles’
earthquake upheavals
how strange to see our
land washing down in to
rivers and sea under
rain’s constant onslaught.

Previously posted August 2017.

Moonlight

Light pours in through my
2 am kitchen window as I
fetch a glass of water,
back lights bedroom and
living room curtains.

Stepping out my front door
I see sharp cut shadows
of roofs fence garage in
the full moon’s light from
high overhead in a strange
brightly lit world under a
black sky flecked with
starlight’s distant pinpricks.

Strange light so bright
under black heavens.

Previously posted August 2017.

Genetic Implosions

They met in their thirties
after singleness led to more
singleness and childlessness.
They looked forward to raising
children in a family they
created for themselves.

At last they had each other
marriage and a home together.
Two children arrived before
their parents turned forty
another slipped in just after.

A thriving family culture
burgeoned with visits, cards,
phone calls, skyping texts
and emails with uncles, aunts
brothers, sisters, cousins, with
grandparents living nearby.

Genetics now threw forth its
ticking time bombs in children’s
genetic problems, As these were
faced head on, new health
time bombs confronted the
older generation debilitating
grandparents in their sixties,
in their seventies.

The new human longer life
is erratic in its well being.

Previously posted July 2017.

Keyboards

In the swinging sixties
while completing a degree
for a library career I
attended night school classes.

each week we practised touch
typing with keyboards hidden
under black bibs anchored
round our necks and typewriters
by solid black elastic.
We tapped keys in time to the
teacher’ calling “a” space “a”
space – on to a-s-d-f”, to speed
tests for words per minute.

Then I practised nightly at
home on a huge “Imperial”.

Rejected by the library course
I went on to teacher training
with a smart little portable
for assignments and planning,
later replaced with that miracle
– the electric typewriter –  .

Twenty years after my night
classes cam an extraordinary
invention on which I had to
learn word processing ……
…… computers ! ……

In serial monogamy I have gone
through three computers, for
at a certain age they fail.

The last one died because its
“on” switch could not work
or be repaired. !  digital death !

Previously posted July 2017.

At The grocer’s

Amaranth quinoa chia flax seeds
bulgur wheat millet couscous.

Outlandish names on bulk
jars and bins at today’s
grocer’s shop – the supermarket.

Once our grocer’s shop was one
of the little shops clustered
around the haphazard cross
roads of five busy roads.

Butcher, baker, chemist, dairy
greengrocer draper stood
beside fishmonger’s, hardware,
stationer’s and shoe shops.
Each shop kept to its own
line of goods, each shopkeeper
served customers at the counter.

When our first superette opened
an old lady complained to the
manager that the checkout girl
would not fetch the items on
her shopping list. He said he
paid her to stay at the till, not
fetch items for customers.

A strange new world indeed !

What would the old lady have
thought of amaranth, quinoa,
chia, flax seed and wheat ?

Previously posted July 2017.

Working Women Dine Out

We operators working strange hours
at the call centre day and night
weekdays and weekends sometimes
met friends sometimes strangers
from the constantly changing staff
during luncheon breaks.

To meet friends from long
serving staff one woman
set up dinners to meet
socially outside work hours
early in the week when
incoming calls were fewer.
Six o’clock dinners for
those with early shifts
to be on time next day.

Non operator friends and family
working conventional hours
thought it odd not to dine
out at later hours later in
the week. We were content
to dine at early hours
early in the week to catch
up with each other’s hours.

We still meet for early
dinners as we retire
gradually one by one.

Previously posted July 2017.