The most recent free verse poems by Mel Irvine.
Lady with Orange Flowers (11/2/2017) - paying 10 pesos for photographs and a peek into her life Day of the Dead floral tributes hand woven (her own hands) into little bamboo baskets the hands of the poor in every bunch. © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily… 
Time (7/1/2016) - time passes slowly before me each particle every fragment finding its own place finding its own time floating alone not lonely © 2016 Melinda Irvine
Lemon Tree Flats (3/28/2015) - driving to the lemon tree flats i am a passenger for the first time in months (maybe longer) laughing more than my body can remember i sit in back while we stop for lizards lizards with beards and long tails… 
Under the Trees (9/24/2017) - below ancient tree roots, where sun light fragments then fades, granite walls (in whispers) recreate these mountains © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Recreate I’m part of Post A Day 2017
Curtains of the Old House (12/12/2016) - Curtains take many forms. Mystical screens weave twelve decades of secrets. © Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Mystical
On the Street Today (8/7/2018) - men with an oozing bellies calm fighting roosters water boiled by fire, pours to a plastic bucket duck eggs, grilled corn, peanuts hot, salted by hand flapping tarps and bright umbrellas wet school shoes sirens sounds, and shredded traffic a… 
Rust (8/20/2018) - bawal = prohibited umihi = urinate diri = here !!!! = please
A Simple Island Life (5/9/2017) - Each morning begins before the sun appears over the cliff raining daylight along the leeward living below our 21st century sun. Monkeys grab at fruit scraps (sometime pets) a few chickens and fecund dogs wander a small shore. Children squeal… 
What is Rain? (10/3/2017) - Feeling athletic we scramble down (jackets off, hats on, sun hot) to the popular spot we rest among passing long weekenders and languages we don’t understand. Rain lands on our shoulders rain lands on our hats rain lands on our… 
Ignoring Safety Advice (10/4/2016) - in the beginning i remember thinking … i will never ever board one of those dodgy carnival rides circling fiestas their steel support posts levelled out on rocks and pieces of concrete rubble. but yeh, i did. and yeh, i do.… 
The Public Market (6/1/2016) - hanging resting smoking standing waiting © 2016 Melinda Irvine
Even If They Are Not Ours (10/8/2017) - is it the familiarity of old things not ours? long since fashionable trinkets and jewels not ours the imagined pleasure of an old memory not ours that we find ourselves? in old wooden halls not ours? © 2017 Melinda J.… 
A Poem in the Morning (5/17/2018) - I woke this morning to the sound of a poem. It rained in through the night words and images. And yet even my first response was not to scramble for a pen, but merely smile and seep into a new… 
What You Don’t See (7/9/2017) - Photographing the top of sugar cane you can’t see a group of kids following me along the hot road running back to a little bridge when I turn around. You don’t see a man under that sun waving in delight… 
No Extra Charge for Ants (8/20/2016) - i know we think our medical system is flawed (most likely it is) BUT have you ever seen an australian baby in our hospitals fanned by an old piece of cardboard, their IV drip hung on a window latch, and… 
Unknown Artists (6/15/2017) - city speaks her name lurid voices piss, the stained human shit a siren behind their streets his only triumph © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Triumph I’m part of Post A Day 2017 This is my contribution for the… 
Black Rock Swamp (3/12/2015) - dirty old swamp transformed to a mirror i ran little in you once long before the rain came dark green river grass flower filled stamens and tangled paperbarks. now sunset fragments sparkling stagnant water decaying long rotting log lumpy water… 
Choices (12/16/2015) - who do you choose? gifted kids? poor families good grades always in school doctors dentists teachers ‘good’ boys always in school but what about other kids? poor families bad grades never in school laundry-work cleaners begging ‘bad’ girls never in… 
I Am Ready to Fly (4/5/2016) - i am ready to fly and the wind is with me … © 2016 Melinda Irvine The lovely painting was inside an old book called ‘Fairyland’ by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. I found in the shearing shed at my grandmother’s farm… 
The Old Steel Gate (7/23/2017) - How many little boys have passed tickets shouting their delight through this old steel gate? © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Gate I’m part of Post A Day 2017
You Do Not Burn (10/9/2017) - When everyone ran, you remained the grim landscape the same colour as your dress and quiet genius as bushfires licked your garters you laughed that same laugh for decades. Old years pass and turn though just your slip remains you… 
Finding Myself Again (3/14/2016) - allowing high-tide to wash over my body following dragonflies with sky-turned eyes eating on the sand together balancing on a bamboo outrigger calling two little boys to lunch searching for fresh tree seeds and leaves shaking sand from my swimmer… 
At the Back (6/28/2017) - decades turned this wheel like clothes worn, falling into that place at the back © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Wheel and Knackered I’m part of Post A Day 2017
Over This Wall (6/22/2018) - Over this wall is a shopping centre aircon and security guards thousands of people over this wall Over the wall is a gasoline station aircon and fancy cars thousands of drivers over the wall Over that wall is a man washing… 
Buying Fish (6/27/2017) - dodging rain tubs filled with last night my morning begins along mud splatters and shouts of ‘Ma’am! “You buy? Ma’am, you buy!” my green rubber thongs step around two tiny girls in freshly checked uniforms and bits of sun shine… 
What I See (1/15/2017) - You see what I see. See my world in my poems. Though you, you are unseen. © 2017 Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Unseen
The sun has gone (5/31/2019) - the sand scorched heat and absence our monsoon rains are late this year and tonight (at last the night) the dogs will sleep inside fresh holes dug to the cool sand not like this burnt afternoon dusk, where the sun… 
Inside a Tree (8/22/2016) - i wish i could give you the beauty of this tree how (even in all this) rusted bars dirty glass framed with grime and plastic tubes roaring air-con dust clad window noise little pieces of wire strung bits of stuff… 
Christmas in Retreat (12/27/2016) - 3.30am neighbours finally silent, interstate plates homed. the street has wound down to wind and a few last lights: Christmas in retreat. © 2016 Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Retreat
Bad Me (3/3/2016) - bad me’ i heard his little voice say ‘bad me’ small head turned into the pillow ‘bad me’ i had scolded him for breaking a yellow colouring pencil he stomped it into two pieces discarded for garbage i found it… 
The Monster You Created (12/13/2016) - A highway passed here once, doors widened to commerce and community. Time and highways flee these places remaining only at a distance (like the monster you created). © Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Flee
Final (5/14/2017) - There is a courage in final the last stroke the brush lain; there is a courage at final the full stop the send. There is a courage in final the last line the light turned the calling and ending the leaving you gone.… 
Leaving the Temple (3/28/2017) - wreathed boy spoke limestone or held bird © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Photo: Limestone statuette of a boy with a wreath of leaves
It’s been a long time since my hands have held my little sister (9/3/2014) - my finger tips are dry but feel well against my cracked lips today they have silenced a whisper parted barbed wire picked wattle and broken a fall cut words from a book older than my mother held a cup of… Read More It’s been a long time since my hands have held my little sister
Navigating the Backroads (10/28/2016) - home is a tangle of paperbarks home is dad’s buckled old ute full of brown dogs home is a black-sanded pathway past the swamp home is an osprey’s nest rebuilt again last year home is the sound of glossy blacks… 
Smile for a sack of rice (11/3/2015) - they know exactly why they are smiling why I was arriving at 10.30 in the morning why they had to put on pants and shoes eldest sister points her little brother to the camera light smile for a sack of… 
Vanish (12/7/2016) - I can vanish the moon. Oh, it’s so easy to delete moons, sand spinifex grass and old memories. Keeping stuff is much harder. © Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Vanish
Beneath Us a Poem (6/26/2017) - frayed texture almost silent poetry under foot © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Yarn I’m part of Post A Day 2017