Inwardly Traveling

I travel inwardly
as well as outwardly
looking for stories to
change someone’s future outlook

& for words that
hang together the delicate
& uplifting

The golden light perches on the cane
& our pet Mynah bird listens
& repeats all the bird song he hears

& then calls to me to have a conversation
about the inward & the outward
ways he sees my world

Looking at our family pull
in & out of the driveway

or my daughter shooting arrows
into cane

I wonder if he would like to fly free
& yet remember that he always
comes back to us
because we are his flock

& that most people would shoot
him because he is a pest

But to us he is our song bird
a feathered family member
calling us to sunrise
calling us to dream

Breathe

Broken Church – June Perkins

There’s a lady with coloured birds
who knows how to breathe
long deep breaths
from head to toe
all through her body.

She told me ‘it is easy to take the
thoughts and put them aside
good or indifferent, stressed or
restless
just breathe

in and out watching the breath
aware of the presence of that
which keeps us alive
taking in the oxygen
forgetting all else but this
breath.’

She tells us not to sleep
as we become aware of each toe
and each part of our hand

And our chest rising and falling
and the thoughts are not welling up stillness,
except for the breath

But someone is snoring because
she has become so calm
but that is alright too
because she is free for
a moment

From the broken tarp rooves
wind gusts
rubbish
insurance companies
quotes
and all that stuff
that interrupts
the breath

And she breathes…

In goes the pain
but out comes a dream
a dream of a calm sea
and a green rainforest
but she must let go even of this
future dream

Lady with birds -Photographed by June Perkins

and breathe

The moment of calm
sinking in as she leans
on a chair and feels all the tension
drift away
fall away and she can fly
in a way
she can swim in a way

With the breath
of freedom
and hope…

By June Perkins

In Memoriam

For my brother Bill

He’s climbed far
& over the hill
into the next world
far too young
before he got his wisdom –

Yet maybe he is happy now
& peace has found
my brother Bill.

He loved to listen to Jimi Hendrix
taught himself guitar
& wrote a funny song for my wedding day.

He wandered streets
to search for peace
without success

Yet peace found him
in quiet moments
when clarity visited
he could  certainly be charming.

So we’ll remember him at soccer games
in plays
like Anna and the King
or dancing
proudly in a grass skirt

That’s the Bill we’re proud to know
& let’s leave the rest behind
to remember the Bill
he often was
tall, strong, cheeky, talented
& proud.

By June Perkins

Fragile Soul

Wollongong Lighthouse – June Perkins

Fragility no one saw clearly
causing a slide
like a tray down a rail
a bump and a crash
to the porcelain esteem

the pieces on the stairs
splinters to anyone
who could try to walk
into his lighthouse

but at the sea
a father remembered
a boy and his shadow.

It had all been so simple
the sand and the ocean
the wave and the wind
the bend and the mend

fragility cocooned
in the cradle of the glance.

Then it had been possible
to see in the horizon
a life.

(II)
Acid burns away the skin of his soul
the harsh words peel away the hope
from the bones of dreams
no more tears rush out

Harsh actions become like sunburn and recovery
takes hot showers of rebuilding.
Healing is so painful

No thick skin for racism’s language to bounce off
sleeping off the sunburn of criticism
the danger of more than cancer lurks.

Recovery is not always possible.

By June Perkins