For Pat Kun
Inhale the scent of roses!
Melbourne is the city of roses.
I shall be there in early October, in Spring,
for a birthday – Pat's eightieth year of youth –
when, for joy, her home,
white-walled, will smile bright red with roses.
Next year at this time, we’ll recall the big eight zero,
a giant of a birthday … but days of wine and roses
can be for the tiny little pixie anniversaries too, the non-
zero years. Shall I return, or just send champagne?
Meanwhile, this year and I have flown fast, fast forwarding
to arrive at this festivity,
this visit to the city of Melbourne
to see my friend Pat turn 80 and smell the generous roses.
Written according to Ravi Shankar's instructions for a 'Manipulated Fourteen-Line Poem' in the book Wingbeats. The verse breaks are my own, and create a sort of upside-down free-verse sonnet.
