🌞   🌛
John Arthur Nichol

  • Rooted: Milsons Point, Sydney

    The mossy side of a sandstone cliff, and the flowing, contorted roots of a Moreton Bay Fig tree, merge together as if they are part of a single entity. A black hole stands between two broken and weathered layers of stone, and green leaves shoot from a scattering of twigs. The stone and the tree share dark grey stains from decades of passing motor vehicles.

  • Putin’s trip to Luhansk is all front,
    Using officers groomed for the stunt,
    And a stage fitted out
    As the worthy redoubt
    Of a slimy, degenerate runt.

    🇺🇦

  • The Queen Victoria Building. York Street, Sydney

    A long building made of sandstone stretches into the distance, topped with copper domes that have aged to green. The ground floor is all windows beneath a light and graceful awning. Above this are many ornate arched facades rising two storeys, bisected by horizontal stone bands that separate the lower, tall, rectangular windows from the shorter arched windows above. The wall continues above these with bands of high and low relief, rising to a separate tier supporting the towers topped by copper domes. Tall, modern buildings rise in the background against a bright blue sky.

  • Putin’s visited troops at the rear -
    So he says, but the facts are unclear:
    For in footage collated
    And geolocated,
    The dictator doesn’t appear.

    🇺🇦

  • Where Pigeons Dare

    Milsons Point Station, Sydney

    A circular metal sculpture in the shape of a ring, made from individual sections welded together, with a flat plate at each join. The sections have cutouts in swirly shapes, cogwheel shapes, spirals and ellipses, and one contains steel bars set in a zigzag pattern like a bridge. The main structure stands on a steel wedge shaped like a shark fin, which in turn is bolted to a concrete plinth. The sculpture stands on grass beside a path, with a wall and train station behind it. A pigeon sits on the very top of the ring. Three pigeons sit at the bottom, inside the ring, and others on two of the metal plates that lie horizontally. A dozen pigeons sit on the concrete plinth, and two on the grass. The sky is white - washed out.

  • Far-removed from the catus in Cato,
    Putin frowns, like a puzzled potato,
    A delusional spud
    Coming down with a thud
    Cause he’s doubled his border with NATO.

  • Behind Victoria’s Back: Near Town Hall, Sydney

    In the foreground is a shadowed open space with dark stone pavers laid in concentric circles. The space is dominated by a statue of Queen Victoria, seen from the back. The statue is in deep shade and stands in silhouette against a backdrop of tall buildings lit brightly by the late afternoon sun. The statue’s plinth is the height of two people, and a young woman in a bright yellow vest leans against it with her pushbike. She has long dark hair, long red sleeves and grey trousers, and is looking off to the side as if she’s seen someone she knows. A girl stands nearby being photographed, and various tourists, workers and window-shoppers populate the square and the street beyond. The statue on the plinth is a throne, with the back of the queen’s head visible above it. In the middle ground, a sunlit building supports a structure of scaffolding draped with huge loops of grey mesh like gathered curtains. It merges with the statue and almost seems to be part of it, or perhaps a ship that hangs in the air.

  • Beside the tracks is a waterlogged paddock, an island of grass, and a grazing horse.

  • Paddocks climb towards the forest near Otford, and horses graze by the fence.

  • An island, some metres in length, stands in the Cooks River near Wolli Creek. Just beyond it, two sunlit pelicans stand in the water.

  • Approaching Town Hall Station: a man heads for the stairs with an evil laugh, pressing a phone to his ear.

  • A girl sits vacant-eyed on the train, chin in hand, fingers splayed, little finger resting on her lips.

  • Fining Up

    York Street, Sydney, looking towards the Town Hall

    A city street narrows towards thick green foliage, and a clock tower made of sandstone rising in ornate levels from behind it. Beyond the tower are tall buildings, and grey clouds divided by ragged patches of blue. The footpath in the foreground is dark-paved, slick and shiny from the rain, with a bus stop in the middle, and runs past a long frontage of big store windows brightly reflecting buildings across the street. Those buildings are a mix of styles from the 19th and 20th centuries.

  • Putin’s talked through his arse from the start;
    Now his underwear’s falling apart.
    Take ‘petard’, often pinned,
    From the French ’to break wind’,
    And he’s hoist by his own little fart.

  • Dogs Do Sushi

    The door of a sushi restaurant has a printed cloth hanging inside the glass. It features a tree with pink cherry blossoms, and beneath it a thick carpet of cherry blossoms, upon which two dogs sit side by side, with their backs to the viewer, looking up. The dogs are small and grey, with darker patches, dark, floppy ears, and a sprinkle of cherry blossoms on their heads. The space between branch and ground is light, speckled grey, and includes Asian script in black ink. Signs include a closed sign with a clock, ‘Mind your Step’ and various home delivery services. The road behind and a brick building with arches are reflected brightly.

  • An entity rises in the seat beside me, as my fellow-traveller struggles into her rain jacket.

  • In Neutral Bay, a cafe window showcases two fat croissants, and the couple sitting down to eat them.

  • Each time a passenger stands to leave the bus, a child’s voice at the back calls: ‘Bye bye!’

  • Above a shopfront awning on Pittwater Road, a cardboard carton sags through a broken window. The edges of the glass are covered with tape.

  • A fragment of sunshine hits the bus queue in Dee Why, and every raindrop is a shaft of light.

  • The Order of Courage is spawning
    In Russia, but not for the fawning;
    Its recipients, cursed,
    Have to detonate first,
    Which for some may be seen as a warning.

  • Down on the Surface

    A field of broken rocks is barely discernible in the foreground, which lies in deep shadow, and ends in a line of sharp, hard-edged stones backlit by an area of intense golden light that shines from a crater, whose slopes are also littered with rocks and stones. The line where foreground and background meet runs from low down on the left to high up on the right. Beyond the crater lies a crust of deeper browns.

  • The achievements of Putin are sweeping,
    And recorded for Infamy’s keeping;
    Every notch, every knurl,
    Like the death of a girl,
    Just eleven years old, who was sleeping.

  • A Sea Change in Luxury

    Looking into a street where grey floodwater covers the road surface and both footpaths, forming a lake in which stand traffic signs, street lights, telecom boxes, a street posting box and a step-ladder with only its very top showing above the water. Heavy rain falls on the lake, pitting its surface, and the sky and the ambient light are grey. In the distance a man slogs knee-deep towards a partly-submerged brick building. He has a sandbag on his shoulder, and clutches another bag that’s in the water. Outside the brick building a sign is displayed showing a woman lying on a beach, with the slogan: ‘Bathers - A Sea Change in Luxury is Coming’.

  • An older man grins and shouts across Lyons Road in Drummoyne, moving his arm in a huge, exaggerated wave. He forms his hands into a camera shape and snaps a finger down, then drops his arms and laughs.

    Across the road, a second older man emerges from behind a parked car, head down, forearm lifted in reluctant acknowledgement. He enters the car, shuts the door and drives away.