Jenny Barnard
The Straw Hat
A summer’s day
you ask me to decorate
your new raffia sun hat.
You,
sixty-plus still beautiful and proud
of your firm breasts
wasp waist
endless charm.
The sun shone from a window
bathed the room in buttery light
I cut a swatch of yellow chiffon
from a much-loved evening dress
swirled it round the crown
stitched it in place
Too plain, you said, let’s let our heads go
I scrunched some yellow paper
shaped a row of buttercups that
I secured to the brim of my mother’s sun hat.
She stood in front of the mirror
reflected on her image
compact and built to last (how wrong we were!)
she put on the hat.
Her eyes were forget-me-not blue
Her smile was impish like a young girl’s.
All it took was a piece of cloth
and a rows of yellow paper daisies
to breach the cold war between us.
@Jenny Barnard
March 18th
My Gentle Father
Kept to the slow wheels of life
and time was a snowy poodle
that rarely left his side.
His fishermen’s eyes
netted fillets of blue sky
while breeze-fat shirts flapped
like giant blue and white birds on
the propped clothesline.
His big-booted feet pressed planks
In the darkly fragrant earth –
preparing the way for spring sproutings
I followed in his wake
up and down the wide rows
of golden pumpkins
sucking my thumb
asking my fairy-tale questions.
Cabbages arrived with grace;
curly leafed savoys big hearted drum-heads.
His capability hands
carried offerings to the kitchen sink.
I listened to the tap singing
cleaned two-legged carrots
like Michelin Men.
Beetroot crimson orbs glowed
as french beans snapped cleanly
in my mother’s expert hands.
His last day,
he strode into the garden,
Hydrangea blue flowers
brushed his sun-blessed hands.
Spade and hoe were put back on their shelves.
He turned toward the house.
Entering the tiny kitchen
he sat down to eat his all-bran with oat-flakes
and sunshine.
@Jenny Barnard
© Jenny Barnard
Peter Macrow,
Tasmanian Times Poetry Editor.
Tasmanian poets or those with a Tasmanian link are invited to send up to 5 poems which have not appeared previously in print or electronic media to:
[email protected]
For the complete collection, click here: Poetry, Peter Macrow
