A door please!
I live in a houseWith no doorsNo windowsNo roofA pigeon dropped me inIt promised me a doorBut in this houseI found no doorsNo windowsNo roofI see the rainbow in the skyI shout for helpNo one hearsThere are no doors to their earsI climb the wallsUp ... up ... up ...To the roofless topI tryI fallI breakI cryNo one sees me fall or cryThere are no windows to their eyesTomorrow come, hurry pleaseBefore the rainbow disappearsAnd all that's left for me to doIs breathe ...
Saba Hakim
one lucky boat
Resting on sea shelves in dry city suburbs,schooled in the dust of bush hamlets,flapping and stabbing the air,to be garnished, canned with sauce —more will be; most won't,in the wide sea of those unnettedon the far side of one lucky boat.
Ray Carmichael
Invading Australia, a fragment
'We have wished to invade Australia like you'd never imaginedfrom where we are based in Pakistan and Afghanistancountries reduced by hegemony to hellwe ruled the waves till we were insight of an island that looked from afarlike a welcome entitybut little have we expected thisthat the waves ruled became bigger and loudermore powerful than Pakistanor Afghanistanas if designed to defeatthe twolike Americaoh, Australia, our hopeour dreamour fantasticdesignerof man-eating waves —we, the 33 would-beswill now livethe rest of our deathin your watersworshipping you foreverin your vicinityas our saviouras our designerand as our keeperfor, after allwe drownednear youit's betterthan nothing'
Ouyang Yu
Saba Hakim is a project coordinator at Australian MADE (Muslim Adolescent Development & Education) Inc.
Ray Carmichael is a Queensland writer whose poems have been published in a number of Australian journals over some decades. Much of his work has been published in Studio, a journal of Christians writing. He aims to present realism while exploring the mystery of spirituality. He is currently working on a collection of poems.
Ouyang Yu is a poet writing in both English and Chinese. He has published 65 books, including The Kingsbury Tales: A Complete Collection (2012) and Self Translation (2012).