by Phyllis Green
Fusion, Hagley Park
The pair maintains a tradition:
hands knitted. Happy enough
to smile with lips
that argue for capital punishment,
they execute zags beyond the croquet,
zigging past hacky-sackers,
copping a ricochet.
Mānuka leaves call them over
into the shield of the penumbra.
Just as the singer’s opener rips,
the crackle of amps thrums death
to all their theories.
The guy’s summing-up fades out, a sigh,
on ‘electrocution.’ His thoughts will keep.
The two nod almost in sync,
leading strides to form a pendulum.
Onlookers laugh. It isn’t the cut
of identical vests that makes them;
it’s the art they use in shuffling
as one.
There’s a swing of limbs matched, the cadence
in Levi’s that alludes to their maker’s surname.
On cue to a zephyr, they keel together, melting
a hug through each others’ static cling.
Gregory Dally has had poetry, fiction, scripts and other material published in various journals, including Antipodes, Meanjin, Quadrant and Spellbinder Quarterly.
Phyllis Green, from the USA, is an author, playwright, and artist. She also sang with a big band in the Gold Ballroom of the Hotel duPont in Delaware, USA. Her art can be found at ArLiJo 123, Gulf Stream, Superpresent, Paper Dragon, Rathalla, Talking River, Cinematic Codes Review, Feral, Agapanthus Collective, The Ravens Perch, The Waiting Room, Havik, and other journals.