Poems
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Stutter
By Evelyn AraluenHold the body the baby the urge
to hold that stutters muscle
that cradles warm air
crush yours into mine to tell me what I’ll miss -
Marcel Duchamp with Pocket Chess Set
By Evelyn AraluenI’ll play the light
and pocket each memory in mourning black
There’s something to be won from a rightful step:
a consent to match -
Sink Stopper
By Evelyn AraluenTo stop: tinker, replace
Drain and fill
Pop the stopper
From the stove -
The Bush
By Evelyn AraluenSoft other abreast gaiac omphalos
From and to which to wish the swell
Eternal recurval return
Beloved be love ed -
Fountain
By Evelyn AraluenExcellent I through utility
behold the humble fixtures
The water egoism – activity working
no other utility but the plumber -
With Hidden Noise
By Evelyn AraluenThis burnt out neon clack is to carry
a fire a long free sea
It’s fine and cheap and here
where deserts provide and unravel apart -
L’Opposition et les Cases Conjugées sont Réconciliées
By Evelyn AraluenI say I won’t go
and you say you won’t choose
We make games of blocking and correspondence
but cannot sustain the play -
Belle Haleine: Eau de Voilette
By Evelyn AraluenDrain the bottle to drink her scent
named in a play of florals
Where different bodies dance in distance
in rose glass haze -
Dart-Object
By Evelyn AraluenIf you’d known what and where I was leaving
from the pieces fallen slack by the mould
Desire might invite key or lock
or tempt you to hold objects in the dark -
The Bride
By Evelyn AraluenWanting in pieces
hanging fixed in stale time
Sky and dusked light from fragment
a structure clutters to a still point -
Satellite view downwards
By Raynen Bajette O'Keefebread under ocean
scarfs under ocean
prams under ocean
spatula under ocean -
Birrarung Billabong
By Tony BirchSitting with your open coffin thinking and not thinking I want to be with the world and you. I knock against the grain of wood and want to know if you remember the day we took the bikes to the river and rode along the bank against a current willing us home to safety. At the billabong we circled sacred water, threw away our shoes and socks and spla… -
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How Water Works
By Tony Birchcup a hand
skin and bone
this water well
a beating heart -
O Australia
By Jeanine LeaneO Australia I want to follow the transit of Venus/ sail around the corner of the world/ discover your terra incognito/ catch the first fleet/ get a ticket of leave/ take up land/ cross your great divide/ unlock your pastures/ dive into your jewelled sea/ Australia I want to chart an inland river that leads to your opal heart/ be a part of your Aus… -
Looking for Arabanoo
By Jeanine LeaneMidway between the Spit Bridge and Manly
on a sandstone overhang jutting like a rock shelf
in the heights of Balgowlah, two benches
look out between North and South Head across -
Nginha-gulia nyiang – These words
By Jeanine Leane~ Wiradjuri interpretations provided by Aunty Elaine Lomas
These words cry out and I hear them—learn to mould
and shape them like clay. -
Urban Forests
By Jeanine Leanegrowing strong without notice
weathering each season
sheltering strangers shading streets
anchored deep reaching high -
Hardwood
By Jeanine Leaneeternity is hardwood
worn only over time
by the touch of wings
the wash of rain -
Wisdom
By Jeanine Leanevision omniscient
listeners that never sleep
standing still growing quietly
speaking nothing storing all
