Grey clouds droop

Grey clouds droop

With heavy hearts

Distended bellies

Barely strong enough

To hold on to rain.

Fire pits splutter damply

Wooden decks

Weather slowly

A patchwork

Of wet and dry

Tentative footprints

Leading out

To the clothesline

And back again

Indicators

Of domesticity.

Cockatoos raise Cain

In a scramble of hurried

Phrases

As a blood feud continues

With the Crows next door.

Lazy snakes fall asleep

On the spice rack

Of a local supermarket

People wear masks

Smiling is mandatory

Beneath the veil

Nothing is as normal

Everything is as it should be

Diversity is extraordinary