Tag: poem
-
Instructions for Holding a Heart
Use both hands,even if it looks small.Especially then. Do not squeeze,poke,test its reflexes.It’s not a trick muscle. Keep it warm,but not too close to flame.It remembers burning. When it trembles,don’t panic.They all do.Just be still,and let it findits own rhythm again. Do not fill itwith your own silence.It needs space,not emptiness. If it cracks,and it…
-
Paw Print
Years since—his bowl gone,yard grown over,collar hangingunused. This morning,cleaning the window,I found it—one print,low in the corner,half lost to light. It floored me.Solid.Sure.The weight of himin a single mark. I stoodcloth in hand,his breathsuddenly in the room. Didn’t wipe it.Didn’t move. Just watchedas the sun warmed the glassand brought himloping backthrough the yardand the years.…
-
She Carries the Ocean in Her Spine
She never saidwhat it cost to hold the world. Just straightened her backwhen it sagged,tightened the threadwhen it frayed,made dinnereven when her hands shook. Her spine—a tide chart.Each vertebramarked by wavesshe never let break. You wouldn’t know itto look at her—how many stormsshe swallowed. How many timesshe floodedand heldanyway. Some call it strength.But strength is…
-
The Way They Run to Her
It’s not a question,just instinct.A scraped knee,a bad dream,the kind of achethey can’t name yet. They run to herlike rivers find the sea.Like they always knew the way. She doesn’t brace.Just opensarms, voice,that face that saysI’ve got you. There’s magic in it.Not the wand-waving kind,but the kind that knowswhich night light to leave on,how to…
-
The Shape My Name Takes in Your Mouth
It’s differentwhen you say it. Softer,like it’s something you foundand didn’t want to break. No rush.You let it settleon your tongue,curl in the warmthbetween breath and meaning. Sometimesyou barely say it at all—just hum itinto my shoulder,or murmur itto the space betweensleep and waking. I’ve heard itshouted,slurred,scrawled on formsand barked in anger. But from you,it’s…
-
The Sound of Men Not Crying
Grief came quiet—shoved in gloveboxeswith old rego papersand blunt toolskept for no reason. Tears weren’t banned,just lostbetween Dad’s silenceand busted knuckles,between she’ll be rightand a doorthat clicks shut slow. We didn’t crywhen the dog died,didn’t cry at the funeral,didn’t crywhen she walked out. Just sat there.Fence posts in floodwater. We breakin the gut,in the jaw,in…
-
Where the Sky Begins
I was born to dirt roadsand paddocks stitched with fence wire—a sky too big for pockets,and stars that never felt far. Kookaburras laughed me awake,and magpies taught mewhich trees were theirs.The gum trees never asked for praise,but earned it,standing through wind and fire. There’s grace in the dry of it—in creeks that vanish,then come back…
-
White Dwarf, Fading
It was once the centre of things—a sun that gave names to shadows,that warmed the bones of planetsand made time possible. Now it glowslike memory does—dim,but refusing to go out. There is no explosion.No final flare.Only the slow retreatof lightinto ash. It will cool for billions of years.Long after the Earth forgets itself,long after we’ve…
-
The Reason the World Spins
I did not fall.I turned—slow as tide,sure as breath returningafter grief. You are not my light.You are the axis—the unseen pullthat keeps my feet to the earth,my voice steady,my hands open. Before you,I mistook motion for meaning.Now, I know the shape of stillness.I know what it isto be seenand not flinch. You ask nothing but…
-
Whalesong
for the ones who sing into silence Somewhere below the shimmer linewhere light forgets itself,a whale turns slow in a cathedral of salt—each scar on her skina stanza. She sings,not to summon,not to find—but to remember. A song older than shipwrecks.Older than ropes and sails. The deep drinks it.Holds it like breath.Lets it echoalong trenches…
