There Goes The Neighbourhood
we call next door
the extinct house
full of birds and bees
and dinosaurs
these days it’s such a jungle
the parcel guy
won’t deliver there
when a baiji dolphin or
California grizzly bear knocks
on my door by mistake
I give them directions and point
to the box of boat orchids
on my porch saying
take that with you
when you go would you
and they do
*
Unknown Quantity
a car pulls up
in front of my house
in the middle of the night
and sits
with its engine
still running
long enough to make me
suspect
the new neighbours
are dealing
in the morning
there is a technicolour parrot
painted on the road
it is six metres long
and looks real enough
to fly
I wonder
where the best spot is
to grab hold of
to hitch a ride
*
Once In A Lifetime
you see a country church hall
on a real estate website
for sale
the Sunday school building too
electricity connected but no
water
no doubt it turned to wine
that last time they pushed back
the pews threw open the doors
to the community danceathon
a fundraiser
for our returned boys
the ghosts of whom can be heard
splashing about in the cellar
swimming against the tide
of a claret of unsurpassed vintage
*
The Rock
two children swim in the river
a third swings on a rope
he’s flying through the air
grinning in the sunlight
the dazzling dazzling sunlight
while the audio track plays on
the splashing the shouting the
running water the scream
*
A Question Of Enterprise
the business man is all business
he does nothing without
a view to the bottom line
even the beard he grew
he offered to his wife
as part of the divorce settlement
and she took it
*
Suzanne Verrall is the author of the poetry collection One Day I Will Go There (Vagabond Press, 2022). She lives in Australia, she reads Charles Simic and drinks her coffee black. To view more of her work go to www.suzanneverrall.com