Hazza leans against a veranda post, drinking a malted milk, his hat brim pushed up, smiling into the sun. He is young. Across the road a three- legged, one- eyed Labrador goes car to car outside the takeaway, hedging itself to a tyre with a back leg propped to the rubber, gently as a sculptor’s … Continue reading Coonabarabran, Suddenly.

the glimmer catches your breatha thorn to the reachyet how that light entertainedpalm and wrist in stretchto think to encompassthose petals of beingrestrain these swathed elementariesvenetian in wander and stasisthe prick as you toucha hand withdrawn from colourso certain of consequencegasp now as primaries splinterone hue in keening refrainflickers within a closingthe burdens so heavy … Continue reading Afghanistan, a rose grew

There’s a cove. A house stragglesa sagging beach, where behind a patched blindthe Hendrix version of All Along the Watchtowersends its summons through the wave speakers.God opens the door, a stubby in one handand his left eye bleeding from a blood vessel.You’re late he pines at me, I’m too polite to saywhat I think, that’s … Continue reading Sea of Souls

Three houses downon a morning with snowI notice while out walkinga kangaroo in the vacant blockwhere they tore down the lastof the fishing shacksto build three huddled units She stands at full height to queryas I take a phone shot to provemy presence in her moment And how I wish to hold herpaw in hand … Continue reading Late Winter Sunday Reflection

You’re too daggy nowonce so ubiquitousalong with hydrangeasthe pairing almost a haiku every second child fell outof that shivering font of annunciationall Alice through hay feverthe broken skin your other variety Jason’s crew cleaned their bodieswith oil from a familiar orchardyour head tossed its fleeceover the weight of so many plantings You’re confined these daysto … Continue reading Cootamundra Wattle

the jonquils are finishing and startinga July day clear as a schoolyard bellstellar heads brighter than chortlelook one way then the otherwaiting to cross the tepid morningof warm tendencies left out to dryhere the salty ice bites into tarragona bronzed memory of Autumn risingthe oxalis periscopes at diveweeded spheres in planetary alignlaid on gravel the … Continue reading Not so still life Winter un Blues

just bark todaylook really closethis bread knife being notchy serrationsfissures persistingbent lines of sightings cry for the butterflyall dewy beautyone day’s flutter yesterday a creasehardwood ungrowingin veranda surroundings breathing a quietudenot always visiblebut here ever present Stick insect Genevieve Brayley Field Naturalists Victoria

I found Jesusin the kitchen, latehelping himselfto the sour dough loafsome roast beef, mustardI thought I’d take the chancemy lower back – a small miraclebut he only had advice, gentle exerciseback stretches. The Holy Ghost was hangingliterally, from the saucepan hooksI’d expected a big irradiating dovedropped to the bench top a mynahyellow beak Long John … Continue reading Ragnarok in the Coles car park

The deceased are buried vertically, the hills so steep. The only flat is the small quay and the mine entrances. When the mud collapsed the deep shafts they realized they had gone too far; the trees felled for tunnels and houses and fire. A cry all along the ridge lines, a moan which sent the … Continue reading Last Light on Two Penny Hill

She told memy hips could carve ham,a girl I loveddead early on a Sunday morning,a car in a suburban chance rollover the edge of Hailes Street. Langy knows we still blame him.His life of laying bricksthe string line’s quivera darting mouse,the memory of water in hayfleeting scent of flax. He’s mixed only cordialthese foundation decades,head … Continue reading Sunsetted Clauses