Three Poems
Janet Kenny

Space Travel

Queensland

​​​

Bleached white by lightning in the night, the lawn

is clamorous with mating toad-song; hope

inspires the Bufo lover in his trope,

while I, the interloper, wait for dawn.

I hear masked lapwings ululate and mourn,

and fruit bats’ ghastly voices as they grope

for blossoms like an addict after dope,

then whoosh on black umbrellas, upwards-borne.

It’s not a punishment to lie and hear

the rest at work while Homo sapiens sleeps.

Small preachers bring their explanations near

and make the ancient mystery more clear.

Each entity converts me as it creeps.

The world is mine and mine and mine, my dear.

​​​​

- - -

Published by Kelsay Books

​

- - -

To a Dying Rat​​​

Thanks to Robert Burns

​

Rat, I did not lay the bait

that’s brought you to this parlous state.

Your dulling eyes encounter mine

and I recall the famous line:

“Wee, sleekit, cowrin’, tim’rous beastie”

and grieve with Burns, but then at least he

saved the mouse, whereas I watch

your death old rat, and cannot scotch

the human habits that determine

which are pets and which are vermin.

​​​​

- - -

Published by White Violet Press

​

- - -

Saving Bears

​​

The bears I didn’t save appear

each night and stare at me as if

I could reverse the clock or wave

a wand. Their staring scares me stiff.

 

I know I said I’d save the bears,

I’d help the dolphins and the seals,

I promised them. I sent emails

to hospitals and meals on wheels.

 

The forests of the world rely

upon my generosity.

The rivers and the lakes will dry

unless they get some help from me.

 

Eye hospitals and open zoos

take no excuses of malaise.

The prisoners of conscience gaze

accusingly at my delays.

 

The bears in bars expect a cheque

or payment made to bearer now.

The price for being nice is high.

Best pay the bears a bit somehow.

​

- - -

Janet’s notes: ​​“Spring is here with a vengeance in Queensland. Unpredictable thunderstorms and high temperatures destroy sleep rhythms. When I first arrived in Queensland, every noise was strange. As I gradually familiarised myself with local creatures I came to enjoy recognising them. It is now my familiar world.

​​

“’Saving Bears’ is a product of the terrible guilt I feel when appeals to save starving humans or tortured animals appear on my television screen.“

​

- - -

Janet Kenny left New Zealand to pursue a career as an operatic and concert singer in London, then settled in Sydney, Australia, where she worked in the anti-nuclear movement and jointly compiled, wrote and edited a book about the nuclear industry, Beyond Chernobyl, published by Envirobook in 1993. Her poems have been published in many printed and online journals. She has published two collections of poems: This Way to the Exit (White Violet Press) and Whistling in the Dark (Kelsay Books). Her work is in several anthologies including Outer Space: 100 Poems, edited by Midge Goldberg and published by Cambridge University Press. This last particularly delights her because she is number 79 in the list of 100 poets who in recorded time have written in some way about space, including Homer, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Goethe, Shelley, Pushkin, Housman, Yeats, Lorca, Wilbur, Stallings and Simic. She is very sorry she can’t tell her late husband. He would have laughed.

​

- - -​​​

Hop to…

Andrew l David l Gail l Janice l John l Mark l Martin l Melissa l Mike l Paul l Steven l Susan l Word-Bird

​