Poems
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Canned laughter
By Mary-Jane Duffy, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsInterviewer: Welcome to the show. Judy, ah, I couldn’t help but notice that you are a very attractive young woman. What do you do for a living? Let me ask you something, [here comes the zinger] do you think I’m attractive?
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]
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Space talk
By Rozanna Lilley, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsTime passes rapidly.
Armed with a celestial body, anything can be used
to propel that armada
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Throes
By Kate Lilley, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsThis world is a ball – give it to me
or take it from me (if you can).
Quick, quicker, quickest,
all the parts of speech apply. -
irreconcilable ambiguity (after John Stezaker)
By Nathan Shepherdson, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lipsi never sleep in autumn.
22nd century workers complete their monument to loneliness.
only one of the apostles wore pearls.
my eyes can breathe. -
Assembly
By Vidya Rajan, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lips1.
The bell rings.
We march into the yard -
neat hair, neat knees, -
Everything's blue in this world
By Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lips, Sam Wagan WatsonI have trouble (remembering)
haemorrhaging where the dream staircase leads
is that the basement or the room where we first met?
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How not to boil an egg
By Hadley, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lipsegg hash with kimchi juice (nb spoiler alert for season 8 of Law & Order: SVU)
1. get 2 big eggs from a carton with a photo of a dog on it, the dog’s name is Pope and the marketing would lead you to believe that Pope is the legal owner of the chicken farm, the chicken farm is in Goulburn, the dog is a wealthy land owner, the dog minds the chic… -
sometimes feels day and sometimes feels night
By Andrew Galan, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsTrapped in this cement and brick and gypsum and nylon work
not compressed unmoving but walking and walking and walking
finding repetition or transient newness at corners but no exit
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Spiral
By Sam Wagan Watson, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lips[The unravelling of a dream-weaved…on the event-horizon of rapid eye movement…]
In this ephemeral dreamscape, reality is a collapsing Escher staircase, void of control… I am delivered to streets that offer familiarity but are simply cheap knock-offs, these Australian dreams… a Hill’s Hoist that could snap in the rush of a weather-front…overcast sk… -
What has been said by many and has often been said
By Pascalle Burton, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lipsafter Cicero’s first and second speeches on the Agrarian Law
I
stirring up trouble -
April Fool's Day
By Angie Hart, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsTurn off the smart lights, let the shadows chase street credit
trace the tape around my shape just a silhouette
of this crime, a brave new world of connected things
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Is That Us
By Ben Salter, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsAries
Accept
Drop off
Substitutes -
The Shrine of Beauty
By Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lips, Timmah BallFootnote: this poem was created using the Found Text constraint as the starting point.
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A Soft Grim Ace
By Jennifer Compton, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsThis is an incontinent sonnet of independent means
and we all have dreams or do dreams have us?
Footnote: this poem was created using the Dreams or Memories constraint as the starting point.
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open platforms closed secrets (homage to Miao Ying)
By Klare Lanson, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsBlockage and initial contemplations are fixated here
The animated gifs shake true // privileging silence over sound
Contradictions between desire for globalisation
whilst maintaining control feels so very thick with obscurity -
Brave Men Run in My Family
By Bella Li, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsI drank too much last night
THIS IMAGE IS AN ESTABLISHING SHOT. IN THE CENTRE IS A SUBURBAN POOL, ROYAL BLUE, SURROUNDED BY CUPIDS AND CLAW-FOOTED POTS. THESE WILL BE THE MAIN THEMES OF DESIRE AND FOLIAGE. WE TRACK THROUGH A SCREEN OF TREES: NED ENTERS LEFT, BAREFOOT, AND DIVES INTO CLEAR WATER; A HAND AND A GLASS OF GIN APPEARS (A SECONDARY THEME… -
for Hansie
By Helen Franzmann, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsI’ve often wondered about the
soft rumble that occurs when you laugh
washing you now I understand -
You are here. \\| /| I am here with you.
By Anna Jacobson, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lipsthe yoga mat is missing from its rolled-up place
what that entails, and what comes after
it returns unchanged
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SEVEN-YEAR SEASON
By Jeet Thayil, Vacant Dragon à la Subverted LipsI whisper your name and the day turns warm.
A third-quarter moon holds the father of Jupiter
in place, farther than ever, slower and meaner
through space, disappearing, simmering. -
HEX-BENDING
By Vacant Dragon à la Subverted Lips, Jeet ThayilWe are the looking, the heat and the voyage.
~ Etel Adnan
Get it to smoking but never to burning
