A tanka, while reading the newspapers over lunch:

THE PRIME MINISTER ON ABORTION

If someone submits
a private member’s bill
and people want to,

then I would allow a debate.
It would be silly not to.

Later, as the day darkened, I stood outside watching the view, listening to recently-downloaded jazz, hearing a koala moan from its tree, sipping from a glass of champagne.

I thought that this is one of the highest-order, intensest points in a sentient animal’s life—these nodes of active-minded middle age.