Poems
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TALISMAN
By Anna Kerdijk NicholsonOften, I’m not quite in
the school rules. I slip in
under the radar. I don’t
comply, but perhaps -
Non-standard Anthem
By Lachlan Brownsnapped in traffic static
the panicked lateness of
cars as though this were
an echo of shanghai or -
sand
By joanne burnsdid i leave them or did they
leave me; i don’t remember
any farewells, i didn’t ask about
their futures or dream we were -
It's not about display
By Gareth JenkinsI have this special spot: It's a secret.
I will tell you though, now we know each other, a little.
There's this space
at the back of my kitchen cupboard -
Drive Through
By Ben Michellfor Chris Gadsby
nice town that one,
real nice, to drive through.
can yer even remember it's name? -
Every Day
By MTC CroninYou are the best material.
You are the invitation.
Everyone accepts.
If you want hospitals, mad-houses & war -
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The Elephant's Nostalgia
By Lindsay TuggleThis is the door.
Our curved bodies grew behind
these spiral walls. -
Re-assembly Required
By Felicity Plunkett(after Nathan Baker)
Wooden anomalies
inhabit -
Mona St
By Fiona Wrightfor Sarah
You forget about it, sometimes.
The open-cut of this place, how each day -
Cold Was the Ground
By Alicia Sometimesdark was the night
Blind Willie Johnson huffs in my ears
weeping into God. How easy to loop
the past into a soundtrack, light digestion -
Disappearing Act
By Felicity Plunkettfor Bas Jan Ader
(1942-1975)
‘because gravity overpowers me’ -
Confetti by Dada
By Felicity Plunkett'a lie that I have FIXED like a butterfly on a hat’
(Tristan Tsara)
-
Wherever you are, there is always a giraffe
By Esther OttawayWherever you are, there is always a giraffe
after Judy Johnson
Cool as a whale -
The Kite
By Emily BallouThe back a separate body
unfamiliar to the face
ceremony of mirrors
to find its graceful lace. -
Blazer
By Esther OttawayAt all times, you will have on your hat, your gloves, your blazer.
- Mrs Burke, Deputy Head, Ogilvie High School, on the morning of Black Tuesday,
7 February 1967
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Mounted Moose Head
By Ivy IrelandIt was possibly a stag, or was it moose meat?
Certainly accusatory, those marbles-over-concrete eyes.
They see beyond now, what they notice most is the lack of it.
-
Father Was A Businessman
By Luke Icarus SimonThen we would wait for the plane to touch down
your big sister would scream as
she was always the dramatic one in the family
(twice divorced before The Beatles) -
The Fridge of Lost and Found
By Bravo ChildFridges offering fragments of forgiveness.
A cabinet holding packets of livingness lavished with emotions and sauces,
adorned with magnets and corporate endorsements.
Bottles of gorgeous importance coat our throats, as our voices sing jingles, -
Swan Lake
By Judith BishopAs music curves through the body, the swing of it
lifting mind's invisible feet, so it happened
a ballet I'd gone to in the days after breaking up