Tiny big mother

Our tiny big mother

has a heavy voltage

capacity for life

Haloumi has begun to settle

around my hips

Annette is studying

presumably more genetically related 

corporately packaged madeleines,

labelled historically francophilean,  

eaten in honour while also in frustration

of unacknowledged/misunderstood/undigested

misspent determination

all understandable, from countless perspectives

I don’t acknowledge middle age spread

Similarly for all of us her progeny

I understand from Dad

Phil and his wife are attending gym exercises

Madalene insists she prefers a beer

and regrets that walks have decreased

and need to be reintegrated into her plans

Dad has  his healthy pragmatism,

I’ll call it that and

grateful he remains so well

in fact outwardly the best

ABC1 has just presented

the renewed, digitised version

of ‘Wake in Fright’,

it was hidden in shame