OLD LOVE Port Fairy

                          

                        Like calcified roots of ancient trees on The Crags

                        Old love is a confetti of Baci messages shredded

                        A ring of turquoise opals with snag-toothed edges

                        Your deframed photo in snippets frigidly fragged

                       

                        Far harbour lights washed out by the glare of dawn

                        Warped tape of Pachelbel in glove box unravelling

                        Old love is that potpourri of rose petals mouldering

                        The wreath of smoke irritates from your Gitanes

                       

Old love is a packet of condoms with use-by date faded

Broken struts and tattered membrane of a double brolly

A sou-easterly blowing grit through Sandhills Cemetery

Dregs from Pimms bottles sour the broom cupboard

Old love is cocky behind bars in screechy rave

A socketless seal, with dense, furry cover fly-blown

Or fairy penguin carked like a discarded oven mitten

The eyestalks of crayfish boiling in a watery grave

                                                              Michael Small

Jan, 1991; Dec18, 2002; Oct 27, 2003; Sept 7, 2005

pub. The Mozzie, vol.12 issue 8, September, 2004

pub. Swag O’ Verse, 2004