Category Archives: September 2021

Robyn Rowland They zoom like Grand Prix drivers spinning at bends, testing angles. So fast they mimic speeding rainbows and their squeaking song is all joy. One lovely thing, I told myself. Each day, just one lovely thing will be my ballast. And they keep coming. After the rainbow lorikeets, crimson rosellas land, more certain,Continue reading “Unblinkered”

Jane Frank Streets are sounds in the mouth. Shorthand for the walks we took, the feelings at intersections with history that are interchangeable with names, days. Heartbreaks. A life- clock beating faster as a red light from another world flickers on a screen. Bad news or good. Exhilaration or loss. A dog escaped from aContinue reading “Shorthand”

Jane Downing Like a veteran feeling an itch on his amputated limb I turn on the light to find an absence where the cat landed on the bed beside me Jane Downing’s poetry has appeared in journals around Australia including Meanjin, Cordite, Rabbit, Canberra Times, Bluepepper, Not Very Quiet, Social Alternatives, and Best Australian Poems (2004 & 2015). Her collection, ‘When Figs Fly’ (Close-UpContinue reading “Phantom”

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad Noon shadows wilt, prussian and teal. Two magpies strut on the porch, eyeing the bead of mince that I roll between thumb and forefinger. They dart in anticipation, claws clicking on stone. I recall my mother standing by the woods, tossing safflower seeds to pigeons – how they circled around her, collectiveContinue reading “Ritual”

Paula Bonnell As the rays of the winter sun cross the neighbors’ rooftree to splay on the bedroom blinds, from them are cut the silhouettes of birds, animato con moto, and their kneebends, wing- spreads, and colloquies flitter among the bars of the six lights as bird television. In the middle bedroom where the air-conditionerContinue reading “Home Entertainment”

John Johnson From my desk, I stare at Chewy, my hamster in his cage. He gazes back, mimicking everything I do. File folders and yellow pads cover my floor. Wood chips and newspaper carpet his cage. I swig coffee quickly from my mug, He slurps water through a metal straw. I Zoom to another mind-numbingContinue reading “Hamster Home Office”

Frances Daggar Roberts As the season changes they fly in convoy into the carpark shelter. They swoop and call around me as though I am known to them, but they own this empty space in the early hours. They weave and dive through the pylons for the empty space is theirs, and I am theContinue reading “House Sparrow Lords”

Noel Jeffs varmints who steal the meat clean their beaks on my balcony’s rim these are the ones I detest the most. from the little pool of water which I placed there and I smiled, and watched as I might have touched a leper. I am falling into slumber now, and am kept together byContinue reading “A Passion for the birds”

Edward Caruso 1 light a blaze from kindling silent canopy in this dry, hot gale that showers us with desert sand which flays our eyes with needle-like heat a desert of my own infirm elderly who cannot raise the alarm of interlocutors who vanish from memory as the planet will vanish before we learn whatContinue reading “Verity”

Jeltje Fanoy Cheer-squad tv news/ is telling us that/real men/ have accomplished what/they have accomplished My mother tries/to cook/the cat chews on the carpet my mother gets/ angry/at the cat/gets under her feet when she tries to cook/then chews/on the carpet I pick up the cat/he wants to/bite me there there/in front of the heater/not/Continue reading “My mother and the cat”