WIRELESS

I am wireless now.
No more plugs and cables.
Free to take my silver iPad
Anywhere I damn well want.
No mouse, nor speakers.
(Sulphur crested cockatoos screech at me
As I take the road from the white weatherboard house
Away from the beach and into the bush).

I am wireless now.
The backpack sits neatly.
I climb away from the main track
Along a more private path, ascending
Until I meet a weathered sandstone shelf.
(The clear cool water falls gently from the
Higher plane and runs across the near black face
Before dropping into the greener tangly bush below).

I am wireless now.
The pack is heavier but OK.
I clamber up the boulders and
The water’s source is now a crystal creek.
Waist deep and surrounded by gangling gums.
(I strip off and flop into the body shock black pool and
Lying on my back the grey-green trees rush upwards
To fringe the eternal blue of beach bush sky).

I am wireless now.
The unpacked tablet
Sits on my knee, lid open
Ready for use in this secluded place.
I flick the switch. Yes!
(The green and red of two king parrots dash and flash
Across the pool which is all olive, brown, black and white
As the sunlight sifts through gum leaves and sparkles).

I am wireless now.
Ready to go anywhere I damn well like, but no
The power cannot compete
With the unruly sun and harsh brightness.
The screen is unreadable. I am done.
(Searching in my backpack I find this old green HB pencil
My red notebook and lying back against this rock
I write a poem about technology and life).

“I am wireless now…..”

PEARL BEACH September 2004 / Revised July 2013