Poems
-
Circular Breathing
By Gabrielle Journey JonesBreathe in truth.
Simultaneously
Breathe out loss.
-
This is Wrong Way by Lore
By Kerry Bulloojeeno Archibald MoranShe white fella wanted to take me
To jaagi maam sacred site's on wajaarr country
A place of muluurr blood, galaagarrbili sweat and budii tears
This invitation I did not mangga-bayila plan -
Takayna; Milaythina Ningi
By Theresa SaintyTAKAYNA; MILAYTHINA NINGI
(Takayna; Mother Country)
Nara Takayna; ngini paywuta
Wurangkili mulapana-nara nuritinga tunapri -
For Grandad
By Phoebe GrainerOld cowboy hat.
We were laughing
Us mob
You telling us story. -
An Heirloom of Love
By Adrian Mouhajer, Princess Arinola Adegbiteafter bell hooks
Here on my table, we share the memory of our countries,
centuries of recipes stitched into the strands of my hair, -
Willow
By Juran AdamsWritten by Juran Timu-Adams
Verse 2 written by Jack McDonald
Maori verse written by Sjionel Timu
I used to try and move mountains -
Perimeter of Rectangles
By Laura PanopoulosSize one
Enervated by background noise,
recollecting my words,
they are far from push-button. -
Clipper blades and feather pillows
By Jonathan SriranganathanSnip
snip-snip
snip, snip, snip
These days, you can hear that subtle clicking almost everywhere -
Buoyancy
By Zainab SyedI.
When we consider the buoyancy of a city’s heart
There is not much that will keep it afloat -
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 -
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
-
Red Face Man
By Dylan Van Den BergRed face man don’t smile with his teeth but he clench my hand
like a purinina grips a bird by the neck.
Me and the bird the same –
Made the same promise whether we holler or hold our breath. -
I Fell
By Heather MitchellI cannot say I knew him
nor did he know me
yet somehow in the silence
between the siren and the stillness -
Gowk
By Simon ArmitageOne day I had no soul and the next
I did, like a cuckoo’s egg, so
then I was lumped with this baby ego
hatching out of the heart’s nest, -
Safe Way
By Kirli SaundersWith love and respect to the Saltwater Women on the East Coast Whale Songline for all times.
Aunty wave them safe way in
Nuenonne, Paredareme, Pyemmairrener waters, -
Without Her
By Felicity PlunkettWhen a body is found on a bike-path –
When a body is found in a garbage tip –
Where a body lies under a bridge, over a border
in the basement of a suburban home, washed up -
you can start anywhere, you’ll still hit all the service stations
By Hasib Houranithe laptop bag is red, i got it for free from a friend who got it for free. new things are not all that common, i suppose. my neighbours speak portuguese, the calathea loses another leaf. the heatwave runs like an old fridge, the old fridge is mostly empty, droning.
we watch the tennis. how fast is that little green blur? could whip me interstate … -
In the event of apocalypse, remember TV
By Mitch McTaggartThere’s Australian TV content that you’ve never heard of
Sitting in archives
Collecting whatever the digital equivalent of dust is
Probably never to be watched again -
Quilting the Armour
By Nam LeSun everywhere, and shadow. Swamplight, aquarium light
turning the far-off fields almost Kelly green, bullion-fringed.
Stitch of tracer gold. Crystallised moments you see, hear things clear:
the end, and past too. Shack, hill, horses, watertank, windmill — -
Writers Block
By Rob WatersWinds rush through half clipped spaces; they whistle in the dark through windows neither closed nor open.
The tin roof rattles; shaking just beyond that point that catches those night winds rushing.
