Cath Vidler’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in various literary magazines including HEAT, Sport, Quadrant, Turbine, Southerly and Cordite. Her first collection of poems is forthcoming from Puncher and Wattmann (www.puncherandwattmann.com) in 2010. Cath is the editor of Snorkel (www.snorkel.org.au), a literary magazine specialising in the publication of creative writing by Australians and New Zealanders.

 

 

 

 

Counting The Stars

 

Nothing left to do but count
the stars

 

(I could be here all night).

 

*

 

Like stopped confetti

 

their utterances
reside, bright-lipped

 

round the moon’s
pale head

 

(the abacus has gone to bed).

 

*

 

Oh chuckling stars
what can I do

 

 

but cut my losses
and count on you.

 

 

At the Botanic Gardens, Sydney

 

i.

 

Bats hang from branches

like pods of midnight,

 

asleep in the reek

of restless dreams.

 

ii.

 

Grass recollects

night-slitherings of eels,

 

their sibilant tracks

seeking closure

 

at the pond’s tepid lip.

  

iii.

Herbs cluster and build,

a storm-system

of piquancy.

 

iv.

 

Somewhere,

a drop of rainforest

 

falls, spreads

to full capacity.