Zebras on Lake George - a fairy tale

Another of my poems from the Poet's Train, Canberra to Sydney on Friday 7 September, since published in Poetry In Motion (2012). I love using the sijo form with its lovely flow in my poetry, although of course these verses are not individual sijo.





once three unicorns were living on Lake George's tranquil green
feeding on the herbage growing where a springing swamp had been
the wind-sails sang a serenade - the landscape traveled like a dream

no ordinary unicorns - for these wore stripes of black and white
as if they'd heard a keyboard playing harmonies of dark and light
or was it simply their desire to journey through the day and night

I thought I glimpsed them months ago - as the XPT flashed past
but later heard they'd wandered off on hearing broken fibre glass
swept up on a magpie's wings and carried safely to the past

returning to their maker - who grieved to see them bruised and scarred
he formed a foal - then resurrected every tiny piece of shard
to sing of art's resilience in gardens during Floriade

now traffic is a lizard streaking round the highway in between
the hills and lonely lake where fairy tales and unicorns have been
the wind-sails sing a serenade - the landscape travels like a dream


hazel SS hall