🌞   🌛
John Arthur Nichol

  • Just a little, not over-proportioned,
    Was the share of explosives apportioned
    To the drones in the night
    On their mystical flight,
    But the Russian elite have been cautioned.

    🇺🇦 #Ukraine

  • Poor dictator, waking in fright,
    To explosions and flickering light;
    There’s a cry of dismay
    Where the indolent play,
    And no rest for the wicked this night.

    🇺🇦 #Ukraine

  • A mysterious drone fleet attacks
    Part of Moscow that generally lacks
    Any cause for concern
    Or incentive to learn
    What they’d see if they looked through the cracks.

    🇺🇦 #Ukraine

  • The Wedding Flight

    Five snow white doves in a white cage, the bars made of painted dowel. The birds are healthy, alert and interested in their surroundings, as they wait to be released into the air as part of a wedding ceremony taking place on Long Reef Beach, Sydney. They have pink feet and coloured identification bands on their legs.

    Long Reef Beach, Sydney

  • No rules - Putin opted to waive them:
    Just get the job done, and enslave them;
    So they brought to the war
    All their darkness and more,
    And they think that a river can save them.

    🇺🇦 #Ukraine

  • Baba Yaga, an old Russian nightmare,
    Who terrifies kids in their nightwear,
    Flies above the terrain,
    In the dark, in Ukraine,
    Stalking terrified Russians who fight there.

    🇺🇦 #Ukraine

  • In Bakhmut the flanks are eroding;
    In Russia the tanks are exploding;
    Kinzhal is passé,
    The aggressor is prey,
    And the dugouts are dark with foreboding.

    🇺🇦 #Ukraine

  • The Wedding Spot

    A photo taken from inside a restaurant on a sunny day, looking across the outdoor terrace to a wedding party on the sand. Beyond lies the ocean with an exposed rock shelf, and a blue sky with banks of white cloud. The bride and groom, only just visible among attendees, stand beneath banners of white material hanging on a bamboo frame. In the foreground a woman stands at the restaurant doorway, looking out at the wedding, and diners on the terrace also watch with interest.

    Long Reef Beach, Sydney

  • Phone in lap, buds in ears, a man in the bus shelter gestures, frowns, shakes his head and his fingers, points, cajoles and argues, just as he might do over a cafe table. But of course, he’s the only one there.

  • A dark-haired woman passes by with her red walking frame and two Aldi chiller bags. She wears long grey pants, sandshoes and a chequered coat. Her face is pale and weathered.

  • A skinny, bare-footed boy with a mop of hair runs past, in long grey trousers and a lemon yellow polo shirt from school. He vaults onto a pointy bicycle stand and hangs there with his legs splayed, risking his future, then slides down to safety and runs on.

  • The dog park is busy. Two dogs frolic together, and a girl does cartwheels around them.

  • A girl of seven years, perhaps, kitted out for school sport in blue shorts and t-shirt, waits at the lights with her grandmother. The girl has a huge pack of toilet paper, and hugs it to herself as if it’s the most special thing in all the world. Her grandmother smiles at her. She wears a big polka dot top and glasses.

  • A man crosses the street in a full body wetsuit, zipped up tight. His left leg wanders sideways as he walks, and it makes him look bow-legged.

  • A girl glides on a bicycle, one leg fully extended, the other bent at the knee and lifted. Only her hair moves, flying in the wind. She slips between sandstone blocks and away, down to the beachfront.

  • Close Encounters of the Doggy Kind

    Two dogs meet on a long, shaded footpath by a sunlit road. One is a small white Pomeranian and the other is a big, heavy Rottweiler. The Pomeranian, alone on a bench, stands looking down in alarm at the Rottweiler, which is passing by with its owner and glancing up at the Pomeranian. The Rottweiler’s owner has paused, looking back because of the Pomeranian’s outraged barking. Both dogs have red leads. Standing in the distance is a third dog, held by a seated woman and looking on anxiously.

  • A man, a chocolate Labrador and a small helmeted boy on a skateboard cross the road. The man leans forward, clutching the boy’s shoulder and tottering after him. The dog trots behind.

    All three of them are grinning.

  • Sydney is awash with snow white Pomeranians.

  • A man with curly grey hair takes in the winter sunshine, head tipped back, legs stretched out, arms extended on the back of the bench.

  • A baby coughs in the wind, as grandparents rattle a paper bag from the pie shop.

  • A woolly, red-jumpered woman holds a little white shape, like a pixie’s suit bag cut off half way down the arms. It hangs against her black trousers, on a string.

  • A tiny girl crosses the road, in a black three-quarter jacket over colourful leggings. She looks up at her grandmother and speaks, brushing blonde hair from her eyes, but her words are lost in the wind.

  • A swallow rides the wind high above, its wings opening and closing like a blinking eye.

  • Winter fashion in Collaroy: white bob, sunglasses, black overcoat, black scarf, black shoes; baggy black trousers tight at the ankles, rippling in the wind.

  • Bushfire Days

    A dirty orange sky above clustered city buildings, with the sun a white ball of light surrounded by a thick yellow band. The photo is taken at an angle so that all the buildings are leaning sharply to the left. The sky’s colour darkens and reddens the sandstone of an old building on the right, adding bands of red to the green copper dome, and turns the foliage in the foreground to a dull brown. Tall concrete buildings on the left are a darker tone of the sky’s colour.

    Sydney CBD