since yesterday’s tilt
the back creek is running clear
we fish for native perch in the flush
from the summertime storage
roasting our catch in embers and ash
watching ibis striding shallows
today new foragers stalk the ibis’ patch
plucking cans and plastics
filling bags among dreck and ruin
beside the creek’s belly
flecked with algae blooms
stagnant puddles and dead fish
while seniors at the mall
rummage skip-bins
skater-kids ghost bitumen
rustling house rubbish
for 10 cent treasures
on Sundays
they wait in snaking lines
their shadows back to back
at the return and earn
Marilyn Humbert lives in the Northern suburbs of Sydney NSW Australia. Her tanka and haiku appear in international and Australian journals, anthologies and online. Her free verse poems have been awarded prizes in competitions and some have been published.
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