Goulburn
A muddy river
flanked by gums wanders through town
past rope swings hanging
from high branches, rippling around
snags and sandbanks, flowing home
Tingalpa
The bush spread to the reservoir’s
edge. Water stretched out of sight
round the peninsula. Wind-blown
waves chopped across to the distant
shore. Kids searched the waterline
for skimming stones, sent them skipping
into the distance as galahs
squawked in the gums, shat from on high.
Snakes bellied through the undergrowth,
redbacks wove webs between branches,
magpies swooped boys on passing bikes.
Flies settled in colonies, crawled
inside nostrils on sweltering
afternoons after long school days.
Doolin
Atlantic wind chills
seek shelter beside stone wall
sit on grassy bank
sun obscured by clouds, grey skies
distant waves crash against cliffs
Victoria Park Lake
magpies and galahs
swoop and screech, the bush buzzes
and ticks, families
picnic beside the lake, speed-
boats tow skiers, engines whine
Meditation
The stressed, grumpy old
man mixing paint in the Ace
hardware store makes me
look like the Dalai Lama,
like Sting, like Leonard Cohen
Nathanael O’Reilly is an Irish-Australian residing in Texas. His books include (Un)belonging (Recent Work Press, 2020); Preparations for Departure (UWAP, 2017), named one of the Books of the Year in Australian Book Review; Cult (Ginninderra Press, 2016); Distance (Ginninderra Press, 2015); Suburban Exile (Picaro Press, 2011); and Symptoms of Homesickness (Picaro Press, 2010). More than 200 of his poems have appeared in journals and anthologies published in twelve countries, including Antipodes, Anthropocene, Australian Love Poems, Cordite, fourW, FourXFour, Headstuff, Marathon, Mascara, Postcolonial Text, Skylight 47, Snorkel, Transnational Literature, Westerly and The Newcastle Poetry Prize Anthology 2017.