Poems
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Every morning I am reborn
By Eloise GrillsEvery morning I am reborn, must reteach myself to function, must learn
Tiresome tasks that always need to be redone
That are in their doing unlearned and undone
Like Jesus dragging the stone from the door only to be required to attend tedious course after course on proper wound management -
Childhood Beaches
By Mohammad AwadTackling waves,
Tussle, wrestle Mother Nature,
Floating on ocean's surface
To defy gods gravity, -
a simple recipe for my body
By Julie-Ann Henningeringredients
a range of mountains
forests of protein
south easterly winds -
the light that bleeds
By Bebe Backhouse-Olivertake me outside to the place we both knew so well
when i’d hold your hand while walking barefoot
even though the soil was littered with bindis
but i preferred the earth to know who i was -
For Nokutela Dube, who travelled
By Sisonke MsimangI was listening to a nice white lady celebrating the Australian elections
and she said how proud Australian women should be that they got the vote in 1902.
I corrected her and said
White women -
What the creek said
By Mike LaddThe creek chuckled
recalling me falling into it
aged four
throwing a stick -
Cradle of Life
By Archie RoachI go down to the ocean
Here on the sand
Ah my heart is broken
As here I stand -
Concrete Country
By Elfie ShiosakiI stand on burial grounds
of interconnected freshwater wetlands, swamps and lakes
seasonally flooding cleansing
sheltering water birds, frogs, gilgies and turtles -
winter faeries
By Jamie Marina LauBecause the behaviour of salt imitates memory, the coffee grinds of lovers, the spines of armadillos,
Salt takes poetry from your tongue by arching it, and holds it there to extract you. Salt splits itself molecularly to be tasted.
I’ve found a way to make language a ‘concentrating pool’, that is, in essence, an industrial sea: -
Stand
By Rachael MeadTwo years I’ve lived as if in a cul-de-sac,
a flat sun bathing me in cold blue glare,
my griefs orbiting like silt-faced moons.
Yet in dreams, I soar with bar-tailed godwits, -
I Remember Dad
By Dave Clarkin response to ‘I Remember’ by Joe Brainard
I remember our family ritual of Friday night fish and chips.
I remember Dad pointing a strong finger at the chalkboard menu, his hunger piqued -
War and Peace
By Maria TumarkinWho knew war would be the time of neologisms,
so linguistically fertile.
(Specify which war. You’re in Australia.)
On Russian TV the topdog propagandist coins ‘to macron’, -
Literature
By Damon Young1. The Green Room
‘Reading is a moral force.’ – novelist
known for writing -
The koala and the cyclist
By Steven HerrickLast night on the television news,
I saw a koala crawl through a burnt forest
and sit on the side of a road
where a group of cyclists were resting. -
Birthright
By DENNIThey make you wanna forget your birthright
Your integrity
To fight
A war -
Where Love Blossomed
By Sachém Parkin-OwensConcrete is where love has blossomed.
The soil beneath my leaves devoid of life,
full of misconception and missed connection.
Full of self-reflections and misapprehensions. -
she marries her
By Sandra Renewshe asks her for her hand to marry
after five years of not holy espousal nuptial
but partnership in civility let’s do it honey
promising to waste no time -
Still Life
By Stephen EdgarTame enough to venture and explore,
Gem-flecked with dew in the Bruny Island dawn,
Two wallabies, stock-still,
Look up and pause while feeding on the lawn. -
Good Vibes Only!
By Nat’s What I ReckonI see you in the bar window
Shining so bright
With a seeming list of demands -
What fangs out of the bracken with a head full of garden?
By Dan HoganSummer equals cicadascream plus other superimpositions
hung in the air like an idea of bunting but never the worsted
wool. I’m no mathematician but who is? Nobody in this poor
excuse for a nondescript prism hurtling birthdaytowardbirthday