2010/03/20 Green Camouflage Poem by Margaret Alice

Changing clothing during the day is not
entirely frivolous, it serves a real purpose
different clothes to make various activities
interesting - washing dishes, fun wearing
swimsuit and shorts to freely splash water
and soap everywhere, mopping floor after-
wards, barefoot to feel fancy free

Off to the pool for a dip, lying with a book
in the sun, long pants to survive the cold
study, off to the shops with a different top
to look almost smart casual, the large pink
kimono shirt has been outlawed, too bright
and too weird, grabbing Tiaan’s old winter
fleeces when twilight coolly descends

Wearing green camouflage Saturday, playing
at being a soldier in communist Russia - the
eternal legacy of my reading Konsalik when
I was small and fell in love with his delighted
rendition of the passionate Russian characters
enduring the Siberian cold with an attractive
and amazing kind of panache

Reminding me of Ivan Rebroff, a deep bass
singing The Volga Boatsman, None But The
Lonely Heart could understand how much
dreams mean to me…