Garden

 

[Garden]

 

After Li Bai (8^th century)

 

Warmth overly warm blows into the garden

Spring sweetness flows through porches

grevilleas spiral (something else again)

 

wattles pass gold froth to the breezes

a thousand cherry leaves flutter green on green

she-oaks reminders of storm cloud.

 

By the resplendent house

great branches move with one another

their long shadows weaving on white walls

 

spotted pardalotes tinker at windows

where they come from where they go

no one knows

 

and magpies on rooftops warble

to their mates down below

strutting the verges for something

 

clouds provided days ago.

Voices of spring are heard everywhere

at a thousand gates and a thousand doorways

 

here one Sunday one October  

crunch of secateurs

swish of uprooted weeds.

 

The sun, the ball of fun

its fiery flambeaux that are

life giver death dealer (something else again)

 

breaks all previous records

for such a tiny star

here and gone here and gone.

 

Coming forth from the house

the imperial cortege of latest news

is turned to something calm and Venetian.

 

Breathing noticed is time for tea.

The house, somewhere to escape the glare.

The sun, it is what it is.

 

Later, when day exhausts, random cockatoos

arrive call high in the sky.

The fruit trees, a thousand buds budding,

 

must be secured by netting and rio

against possums hopping fences, hoping

For a midnight feast.