Untitled - Brooke Linford

Untitled

After a long time
of being still
he begins to crackle

I can hear
his mind tick
see him kneel
in his robe

maybe
finally
he can call off the search.

Brooke Linford
http://www.holland1945.net.au/

In Translation - Amelia Walker

In Translation

This language is a borrowed dress
I put on,
but never truly wear.

It is functional enough:
hides what must be hidden,
enables me to blend into streets and supermarket aisles.
Still I know -perhaps others can tell-
it is not mine.

It hangs baggily in some places,
affords no movement in others;
is patched mismatching colours -legacy
of countless past wearers.
It has been taken in,
taken out, torn and soiled,
sewn up and let down.
No matter how much I wash it
the fabric is flavoured with moments that are not mine:
spilled drinks and cigarettes,
perfume and sweat,
a million mixed meanings,
minefields for misinterpretation.

Still I walk around, wrapped in this language:
foreign as it is, I know no other.

Secretly, though, I pick at its frays,
trying to imagine what could be
if this language and I were to unravel
into nakedness,
into silence.
Without words there are no rule books,
without words there are no lies.

Amelia Walker

(first appeared in The Mollusca Chain)

http://www.freewebs.com/ameliawalker/index.htm

Tourist Strip Poems - Graham Nunn

Tourist Strip Poems

1. The same old people
walking along the
same old skyline

2. A shell in the window
listening to the waves

3. Ghosts of the Yugambeh
people selling artefacts
in the avenue

4. Tomorrow's sand
waiting in the bilges

5. A seagull deafened
by concrete
on all sides

6. Clouds of sandflies
rise to neon calligraphy

7. The night sky's excesses
pour into
wakefulness

8. Streets of homeless;
suburbs of living dead

Graham Nunn
http://grahamnunn.wordpress.com/

MASCARA POETRY - ISSUE FOUR

Mascara Poetry have recently published Issue 4 and it's full of brilliant, stirring work by a wide range of poets from all over the world. I am very proud to have my work alongside them.

Michelle, Kim & Adam have presented one of the best publications this year.

Issue 4 features:

Shirley Geok-lin Lim
Francesca Haig
Sean Singer
Indran Amirthanayagam
Kylie Rose
Liam Ferney
Jessika Tong
Peter Davis
Jal Nicholl
Debbie Lim
Tenzin Tsundue
Ashley Capes
E A Gleeson
Jane Kim
Michael Sharkey
Ross Clark
Ouyang Yu
David Gilbey
Zenobia Frost
Kristine Ong Muslim

http://www.mascarapoetry.com/

Ashley

Minutes - Tiggy Johnson

Minutes

I glance at the clock
sure half an hour’s passed.
A minute has. One minute.
I look at the ceiling. Suppress tears.
Wonder if fifty years will pass
before hand-over time.
I circle the room, moving
in slow, steady steps.
Need to clear my mind.
Need to stop the noise.
It hurts to stand. To walk.
But the screaming’s subsiding.
I persist. Focus on the pain,
hope it’ll block the noise.
Son cradled in my arms
still crying, but not so desperate.
I want to look at the clock again, but
I expect only another minute
has passed and I don’t want to count,
one by one, the twenty-eight minutes
until I expect my husband back.
I hum. Sing. ‘Hush little baby...’
I rock as the words screech
He seems to be calming. I hope.
The verse is finished and I don’t know
what the next one is, what happens
to the diamond ring?
I have to think. Need to know
But the words don’t come in time
He cries louder, I’m rocking, humming.
The diamond ring? I have to know.
‘Hush little baby...’ The diamond ring?
‘If that mockingbird...’ Shit. The ring?
The clock. Twenty-four minutes to go.
I walk quickly as if it’ll help me remember.
Then, it comes. I smile. Relieved.
‘If that diamond ring don’t shine...’
Hum the rest. What if it doesn’t shine?
But I’m over it. Couldn’t care less.
I repeat the first line. Over. And over.
The crying stops. He’s looking at me.
Smiling? He’s tiny. Cute. Mine.
Still has that new baby smell.
Can’t help but to smile back.
‘Hush little baby...’ I’m still walking circles.
‘Daddy’s gonna buy...’ I hear a car in the driveway.
Move to the front window. Sing ‘Daddy’s home.’
But I’ve forgotten it’s hand-over time and
Daddy walks in and kisses both of us.
‘Hush little baby...’

Tiggy Johnson

(first appeared in Tamba 38: Winter 2006)

http://www.pageseventeen.com.au/Tiggy.htm

Not Going Anywhere - Robert Morris

Not Going Anywhere

darling she said
not that you'd leave
but should I find you
if you do
I think you know
what I'd do.
Things, born of love
threats
drops of poison from a bottle
I'm not forgiving
I'd throttle you
and if there were another woman
I'd kill her too
now let's forget all this
come sit here
in your favourite chair
I know
you'd not
go
anywhere.

Robert Morris

http://www.smallchangepress.com.au/titles.htm

Levels of Incapacity - Jane Williams

Levels of Incapacity

it seems only yesterday

he was free loving his way

around a world open to

suggestion his suggestion

now unexpectedly sixty

the wrong side of a pension

fresh from a triple bypass

he shouldn’t have survived

trying to explain why he prefers

meditation to medication

for the pain he can’t otherwise prove

to the young customer service officer

wearing jeans for genes day

(there’s a brochure on his desk)

smiling rhetoric like the myth

of his own immortality depends on it

gauge your level of incapacity

professional evaluation

here to assist you in any way we can

back into the workforce

Jane Williams

http://janewilliams.wordpress.com/