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ARTS AND CULTURE

Where granny got her stick

  • 26 March 2013

Above

we exchange peanuts with strangerschoose a watch from the in-flight magazinesomewhere to aspire toother than here

we block the coughs of bodiesbury our heads in a beverage cartbarely looking down

in so much perspectiveremoved from the wrap of placewe are giddy

we exercise our rightto walk about the cabinchoose from the menusmall measures of controlmake us bigger thanthe blue out the window

 

Below

the shadow of a planeover yellow-greenlandscape woven riversdifferent streaks, crops, billabongsmiles of belly-flop bluethe peter-out of cloudsmears of vesselsfishing boats long gonein the drown

 

Escalator

a ladder in constant climbeach step falling away to flatnessprogress dissolvingthey squeal as they unhinge

 

The mission kitchen

the donated knivesare not sharp enough to cut onionor score a scone

all around methe peel of blunt skinnedhard vegetable that no-one wants

knuckles gnarled with rustdiscarded weapons

beneath the constant hack ofsmokers' breath and gravel talka musical shaking out of pockets

 

No substitute

you asked granny where she got her stickwanted one that didn't look oldor ugly

a wooden sturdy pokerit helped on the days when you couldn't feel the floorbut was no substitute fora seat on the tram when you don't looksick or expecting

you clutch to the raila numbness you can't explain

 

Smile

you contorttwitches at the sideweak at first you checkthe register against the lighttheir eyes

looks more like a grimace when youcatch it in the window

you coerce it to the same side of the streetand swing on itbags in your armsto home 

Bronwyn Evans is studying a Graduate Diploma of Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne. Her poetry has been published in Page Seventeen and the South Townsville micro poetry journal. She was awarded 'Best Environmental Poem' in the Elwood Poetry Prize 2012. She was a contributing editor of 28 People Write, a 2012 anthology of Australian writing by Bayside writers.