POEMS by Sara Bruxner

Sara Bruxner is a Poet living in Beechmont, Queensland

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Bruised Petals

They were brown and squashed and I felt sad

for the lost beauty and trampled vision of perfection

I did not realize until you gently reminded me,

that they were not lost

they were only changing
The days skipped

the sun and rain took turns

to bake and soften the rusting petals

They started to dissolve into the red earth of country

and I watched with wonder and curiosity

as the lesson was shared with me
The faded patch of beauty did not mark a grave,

there was no epitaph of grief

It was a celebration of change

The red soil soaked up the melting beauty

and life promised in the sun

We sang and danced

one step nearer
The corolla of our lives,

the spirally journey with this land

The last silken petal drifts

and rests till another morning
stretches and yawns

rubs the sleepiness away and welcomes the sun

---

The Firefly’s Dance and Kiss
Hesitatingly at first you

skipped through the hush of

sunset

and just like me

your glow flickered and disappeared sometimes
But courageous little beacon,

your spirit shone

and the glow warmed my spirit

beckoning so sweetly to shine my own light

as you freely danced your prettiness all around
The darkness crept and curled

around my legs as you dipped

beyond the lavender out of sight

I pressed into the inky dark

and there! You reappeared with others, a chorus of light and bounce

 

Timid females you blinked your brightness now and then

Bravado and desire, the males

enchanted and charmed and with their

lively abdomens aglow,

the evening magic reflected honey-gold of love
It was a spectacle of floating lights and lighter rhythms

of life cycle and fairy dance

Sitting still and melting into the garden

I watched and wept a tear of wonder,

gathered up the joy you left behind

and pondered my life on the night’s whispering

---

Surprise and Breakfast
in the clean, early morning

eagle glides over earth’s green face

hare keeps low, timid.

Hunger circles overhead
No flapping

just perfectly plumed dive as

brown-black wings eclipse the sun
In one broad flap the climb begins

High into the silent counsel of the eucalypt

eagle wedges the frightened meal
Family joins, breakfast begins

Skilfully, sinewy thighs

still damp with dew

are peeled
The last tremble of flesh

and heartbeat sighed

Breathtaking magnificence

rests and watches

 

Angry Water in My Eyes

A muddy kaleidoscope of rainy daggers stabbed my eyes

The angry raindrops slapped my face, making me wince

I scrunched my eyes and wiped the watery blades away

Raindrops, once joyful, playful, suckling new life

snarled and spat their hurt in my face

What was their story to becoming so cruel?

The violent attack beat out the answer.

Soft, gentle water

freedom vanishing down stinking roller-coaster sewers

swirling human refuse

consumer madness whirlpools

flushing the flatulent bowels of

Western gluttony onto ocean shores

Plastic wrappers, cans, shriveled, lusted-up condoms

wastefulness, immoral using-up

these toxic gifts, the cholesterol of Earth’s clogged arteries

Drip, drip

moist rainforest lullabies

bold summertime storms

happy streams blowing cheeky kisses to bottlebrush bends

lost times now, the rivers limp crippled

wheezing through weed-twisted barricades, vanishing dreamtime

blue-green death masks and chemical mists

Fish, turtles, frogs thrived

in your fluid bosom

dragonflies pirouetted pretty

springtime follies across your virgin ponds

wretched and haggard now

those watery cemeteries

Oil-slicked puddles I delicately step stiletto-past

deadly rainbow reflection of life disappearing, withering

as you endure our catastrophe of ignorance

---

Strangers in the Sunset

Satin bowerbird framed by perfect sticks

glossy suit of inky night sits tight

Violet eyes dart with frenzied flirting

Dusty female quietly weeps the plastic

love tokens of blue

 

Bush turkey’s fearful run into lantana battlements

eyes wild, fanned-tail collapses under hungry privet

Camphor laurel crown demands the land to yield

with ungracious triumph

strong roots stranglehold this ancient soil

 

Lorikeets wrestle on kikuyu tendrils

red and green morning squabbles

Another day wakes from moon’s cabaret

fiddlewood leaves rejoice

in the sun’s hot-baked sorrow

 

Elusive lyrebird’s mimicking

plays tricks on my ears

I cry as it’s solo sings the notes of chainsaws and dozers

the two hundred year old recital

in perfect pitch ringing out hell’s requiem

 

Lonesome bunya nut tree births it’s child-seeds earthbound

Hoop pine spawns winged seeds of life

like brown confetti, they nestle in my hair

hopeful, foolish offspring of vanished dreaming

refugees in a sunset once their own.