Under The Mallee Bough

  A Miscellaneous Act. Mother and Child, 1865 by Frederic Leighton. A Play of one act, one scene. Characters..: Annette. Aged ; mid-sixties, wavy, brown hair, dressed conservatively middle-class. Soft, clear voice showing a determined disposition..certain in both her choice of words and movements. Scene : Annette sits on the edge of a lounge chair, leaning over a coffee table. She is in the process of writing in a greeting card on the table..she pauses in the action and lifts the card near to her to read what she has written on the card. Annette : “ Happy fortieth birthday, my dearest Pauline..and congratulations on your recent promotion, I’m certain the ward will now run more efficiently with you in charge…( She pauses and thinks for a moment before replacing the card on the table to continue writing, she then reads the rest of the card)..I’m sure your father will be looking down from above so very proud of you…Have a very nice birthday...

  Love Me Tender…A Play. Nativity scene…18 th century..Flemish. (I have turned that short story of the same name into a short play. ) A one act, one set play. Characters: Kevin Cotton.. (Male..mid fifties, tall, with sardonic expressiveness) He is the Master of Ceremonies of the circus, an imposing figure in his M.C. outfit with top hat and tails. Beverly Cotton…His wife, around fiftyish, slender, long blonde hair, motherly type who is the “Tibetan Lions” tamer as well as skilled acrobat. She is dressed in her acrobat costume. Troppo, The clown…Tall, lanky male of indeterminate age as he is not seen without his stage clown makeup. He has a stoop to his frame and will twitch every now and then demonstrating some sort of substance-taking problem. Rex…Short, stumpy male around sixty years, with groomed mustacho and a bouffant style of hair. He is both the one man band and the orchestra for when the “Big Top” acts are playi...

  Old Man… “Sympathy” by artist Briton Riviere in 1878. I have reached an age where.. I am no longer inclined to have any regrets, I no longer have luxury of time to repay any debts.. I no longer feel the necessity to humbly explain my moods, And I no longer have the patience to hear the banter of fools. I have reached an age where.. If I take example to the Radio National programs, Where I am encouraged to enthusiastically embrace, A new age of inclusion of every strange stripe of disgrace, Of every stupid absurdity and its accompanying research data’d, That proves that much older saying of a fool and their money soon parted.  I have reached an age where.. I feel it is hypocritical to hand-wringing empathy show, When there’s not a bloody thing we can do or can ever bestow, That would change the course of history to return what once was stole, And this seeking of the universal perpetrator of tho...

  Love is an Equation. (a song) With every new friendship, and all its entice, Love doesn’t decrease, it just multiplies, With every passing of breath, in that ending demise, Life doesn’t cease; it’s just a compromise. (chorus) Love is an equation, A moment of sudden elation, The pause before persuasion. A catch of breath before it falls. * When we fall in love again, even not young at all, We be all as young children, when love it comes to call, And though it be many reasons, and maybe any cause, The hunger it never ceases, it’s just a long, lonely pause. (chorus) Love is an equation, A moment of sudden elation, The pause before persuasion. A catch of breath before it falls. * If we are awaiting answers, like a bus before it calls, We could be waiting forever, like a spoilt expectant fool, For love it gives no reason, allows no compromise, It gifts and takes at l...

  Love Me Tender. Scene: It is late evening after dinner..a fire burns briskly in a low height brazier in the centre of the small circle of trailers and a couple of caravans where can be seen from the light of the flames the painted signs advertising the circus of which the folk gathered sitting on bales of hay around the fire belong. There is emblazoned in red and black on the side of a long, horse-box trailer ; “Dangling Bros’ Circus”…on a caravan is the announcement of the next town in the itinerary of their tour, but with a pasted paper sash across the dates and location with the scrawled word “Cancelled” written on it. The folk sitting around the fired brazier look glum and dispirited. They consist of the owner and Master of Ceremonies of the circus; Kevin Cotton, His partner and wife, Beverly, who serves as acrobat and “Lion Tamer”(of in fact two trained Samoyed dogs, whose coats have been clipped to make them look like they have a lion’s m...

  I Sometimes Hunger. I sometimes hunger for the impossible, Like the moth doth for the star, I sometimes yearn for the memory, Like a migrant for his land afar. I likewise dream of the pleasure, Tho’ I confess ‘tis mostly in vain, For there’s not a God in Christendom, Could conjure herself, when I speak her name. Tho’ in my vanity seeking, To re-claim that pleasure that was mine, I see no fault needs forgiving, In visiting such a moment in time. For let us admit if nothing, There are moments once lost to one self, Though be no fault of our choosing, Begs no redeeming, what was a delightful indulge.