Poem: Sky Green

Sky Green

My grandson, soon two years

into his lifetime, offers me a crayon,

green, and wants to see

a scene of what’s to be.

I sketch a green house, gabled,

green as sky. I choose

a darker green and draw

a fountain spurting playtimes

midst a pond of mossy stillness.

Childhood is a meadow

with haystacks of experience

in rows I scrawl in orange.

I carve a frond of clovers

round his heart and mine

on the trunk of a purple tree.

The sheep are purple too.

They look like parkland barbies trotting.

The sun is silly-pilly blue

and gladsome in a pink cloud sky.

The birds are shabby brown…

not any slight on birds, it’s just

the colour crayon given me…

that swoop inside and off the page.

‘Draw us,’ my grandson wants

to say but doesn’t have the words.

Robert Dawson is an active member of Adelaide’s Friendly Street Poets, presenting his poetry and discourses at venues such as the Ern Malley Literary Bar and Brookside Cellars Community Arts Centre. His most recent appearance, was at the Ern Malley Bar last month where he presented his free translations from the works of modern European poets such as Constantine Cavafy, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Paul Celan, and several other Italian and Spanish poets. More about Robert’s work and background, can be found in the bio note accompanying his initial Poet’s Corner appearance, on 6 June last year.

Photo: Unsplash