edinburgh

it's hard here
city carved
from volcano

windscoured cliffs
wear lopsided trees

element-chiselled people
who've seen it all,
endured.

now you understand the thrift,
distrust of English,
trench humour

hypocrisy rare
friendliness real

so cold here
perhaps
bullshit freezes

Po valley marble chips

this whole country's
on spring's cusp
slenderbranched forest
are they elm?
i'm a sclerophyte myself
each shoot in pregnant bud
any day they'll explode
and i won't be here

crosscrissing the po
in a tourist bus
the water's clean melted
snow from the alps
the rubble and gravel
purest white carrara marble chips
you imagine a scree at the feet
of michelangelo and David

the autobahn goes straight
through dark mountains
then flash! snap
a new vista
like watching the slideshow
of your holiday
while you're still
on it

^

Biography

rob walker's work has appeared recently in Tryst, Sidereality, Plum Ruby Review, Indie Journal, The Oracular Tree (USA), Limestone, Snakeskin and Comrades (UK) Numbat, Thylazine, The Curious Record (Aust), NZPoetsOnline, Southern Ocean Review (NZ), as well as some in traditional print form in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. rob lives on a small farm in hills east of Adelaide, South Australia where he also teaches music and drama, is active in improv & community theatre and works with a psychologist colleague in producing text and music for clients suffering anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. He regularly performs his poetry at Adelaide's famous Friendly Street Poets. Official website: http://www.users.bigpond.com/robwalker1/