recharter (ii)

chill chill chilly chill

there was frost this morning. the wee hours of dawn raining cold on the city. ad woke me with a knock and there on the balcony were ice-kachangfulls of sago-soothed hailstones lining the rims of pots and pale grey floor. it's spring and still the hailstones came. swa-koo me grasped a handful, stung into submission...to wonder and a free-fall of thoughts...ice on my window, not forgetting yesterday's warm spring day and the faint patters of hard rain, forming alien life outside my window.

recharter (i)

catching fish-filled days

this is my favourite section in queen victoria market (www.qvm.com.au). i spend the most amount of time here, trying to bargain for discounts at closing time. i once bought 3 pieces of coral trout for $12 and managed to steam one to perfection on the same day. no matter how dreary your day can get, seeing pound-slabs of swordfish mingling randomly with prickly pockets of sea urchins and upturned swimmer crabs by the side just makes your day. your purchase shimmers in freshness. not just plain lines of anonymous fish but christianed flake, leatherjacks, hake, perch, barramundi, mullet, grouper, shrimp, trout, mussels&oysters all gathered in lots, basked in seasalt. the haggling begins. i start floating an uncharted menu on my mind

thoughts on a morning, near semester's end

my mind is stuck
my brain is jammed
saturated with oblique theories
which do not make sense

my final essay is due next friday
just 4000 words. no pressure as
yet, but i keep typing
hoping syntax and word will
give birth to sense and
faith...so all that is written
may bear some vague
and murky answer
a response to
this morning prayer.