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Melaleuca
Number 46: April 2013 Editor: Phillip A. Ellis
Table of Contents
Kathleen Bleakley Buddha Road 3
Kathleen Bleakley Superb Parrots 4
Max Merckenschlager Men of Yemen 5
Max Merckenschlager My Under-Rated Friend 6
All works are copyright by their respective creators, 2013; the
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copyright by Phillip A. Ellis, 2013.
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Buddha Road
Buddha men beached
like seals
alongside their trucks
lining the highway
silent
while car hornsblast
drivers yell
Get off the fuckin road!
zen bellies
like rocks
waves washing over
Kathleen Bleakley
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Superb Parrots
Parrots appear
green as fields, after drought
patchworked with
iridescent rapeseed
lambs runeroded gullies
farmers remember
golden fleece
grandparents wealth
taste the honey
still around
Hotels shape the town
some return
to grandeur
others peeling, fadingin afternoon light
Kathleen Bleakley
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Men of Yemen
Ali the sportsmaster and school disciplinarian
took my hand in his
and lead me unselfconsciously
to where I'd sought directions.
And did a human current pass between us?
And did he sense a sweating of my palm?
And did our students stop their chat to watch us?
I think not.
Later in the souk
men in skirts embraced and kissed
and walked off holding hands
as I observed and mused
What's normal?Max Merckenschlager
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My Under-Rated Friend
(sonnet to a stumpy)
The lizards dressed in sequin-studded mail,
she licks her lips with tongue of gentian blue,
in swaggered gait she drags a stumpy tail,
unflattering from any point of view.
Ubiquitous on summers country lanes,
through pregnancy she labours till the end;
expressing life from lungs, her foetus gains.
I worry for my under-rated friend.
She threatens us with bold display and stare,
but twinkle in her merry eye of glass,
refutes the message touted by her glare.
Uncertainty permits her space to pass.
Her battle-plan is not to rule the earth,
my shingleback defends her lizard worth.
Max Merckenschlager
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