Poetry - Year V - Number 42 - November 2020

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...

bucket list the crackle of plastic as an elephant’s trunk unfurls, accepts a sugared bag; gentle eyes and huge eyelashes smile as it stuffs it into its mouth. it’s so stupid, it’s eating my bag! shouts the nasty kid. I...

Scar Tissue Land I don’t recognize the yellowed veins of wood chapping into hot, sun-hardened beams. It has been too long since I came here last: to the scar tissue land where my pets are buried. My brother,...

Pulse What of the drum its timbre a taut membrane between beat and rest systole/             diastole pounding blood to the surface, twinning one’s body to the world. If you give yourself to it, find yourself on a riverbank at night padding a cadence barefoot until mud...

The Hardest Part This song teleports me back to another time. The sun was high in the sky, and so was I. The music drives with its lyricism. And the days now are driven by algorithms. I think about...

Nixon Resigns At the skating rink teachers on patrol, the rumble, the smell of floor wax, popcorn. She rolls next to me and winks I think. We bump into each other and fall in my mind love in hers over that stupid boy. And the...

Creekside Why can’t every day be pancake morning?  Last night Mom made treaty with the monster under my bed. Front yard pine needles nest in my hair because I won’t give up on keeping tally of fireflies. Mouse...

THE CITY (Caracas) I. This other overcast morning I hear two snaps echo up the narrow streets It is time to greet the day II. Children in school uniforms adults in work clothes hurry down these narrow streets On a patch of grass near worn buildings A man...

M Charactered And in the glare Mu Cephei roils As if to dare armed craft to draw near Or to deter steel souls from rare risk Which is the high dream I Kalki chose So now I boost thrust...

REMEMBER WHEN THE CRUSADES WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS? Was there lots of raping and pillaging during the Crusades? Or just the right amount? Was there too much, dare I say, greed involved like some aberrant cult addicted to Manifest Destiny? Have...