Wishbones It turns from scrubbed white to dead-bone yellow on the sill above the sink A furcula fetched from the chicken’s neck for a game as old as the Etruscans It sits like a water divination rod above the taps, rocks when we touch it Clippity-clop, rocking-horse-rock on two solid sled-like arms I will put my pinky round one arm, she’ll do the same to the other Our knuckles will graze, purchase will slip on the smooth old bone Thumbs will hanker to push against the head that binds the two arms But our mother says, wait, it won’t snap, too young, too flexible Competition is repressed: we hide our wishes, daughters of the one mother Maybe it is the same small wish For now we do not know wishes do not come true, whether we win or not We do the dishes and watch another Sunday pass, another wishbone appear Mothers have a rare wisdom: a second chance joins the brittle bone on the sill Still, how did she ensure we shared the wins? Coming home
Having someone wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night is a very old human need– Margaret Mead
It is as late as a dead comedian The last hill is Sisyphean Margaret Mead was right He waits on the top step Moggie playing statues: Bastet, goddess of Egypt His bib is moonlight white his matching paws are poised on the edge (why isn’t he called Socks?) The cat gets through the door first populates the dark hallway mews hello, you’re late we are home Tathra Wharf The sky is postcard blue and he notices just how picturesque so she goes over, strikes a pose against the weathered railings in a gap between the fishermen feet nudging a bucket of bait (smells don’t come out in photographs) Then the usual: smile, cheese, fidget, smile, silent click, capture She walks across historic planks head butting the breeze off the cliffs reaches into his hands to check the image on their phone – her grimace says it all but that wind has taken her hat and he is speaking loudly to her racing back Words caught before they blow away: photoshop fixing smile
Jane Downing, who teaches at the Albury-Wodonga campus of Charles Sturt University, has had poems published in