Poem: Friend

Friend

Unlike Wei Yingwu, that

Tang Dynasty poet,

none can think of reasons to visit me,

but still, here today:

orange, lemon and mandarin

blossoms flash in diamond-dew,

eucalypt pin-cushion-flowers are

deliciously delicate,

lorikeets vacuum bowls of baby-mush,

kookaburras pelican the mince

I throw at them, and

my three cats battle for

supremacy in my attentions.

Old friend, who sends

me words made of memories:

my crown is grey and sparse, is yours?

But to cross time and cultures

(tho things are the same),

to quote Tolkien:

Life goes on much as it has for ages past.

We find ourselves well and happy.

Robert Martland, from Adelaide, lives in the Limestone Coast region of South Australia. A former business and finance executive in both the corporate and public sectors, his career years were spent in Adelaide, regional New South Wales, Sydney and Singapore. Over that time and to today, he has also had a dedication to golf, trout fishing, volunteer membership of the CFS. And, very much to poetry, its reading, history and writing, the latter which has seen him published in leading journals and anthologies in Australia, the US and UK, with his most recent appearance being in Australia’s literary and cultural journal Quadrant.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.