Print version first published in Southerly Literary Journal, edition 72.
more poems in this collection can be heard at this link:
https://becopoetry.com/2017/01/19/in-collaboration-with-max-2/
Author: Rebecca Sullivan
(after Duplex by Jericho Brown)
in her bedside drawer a secret sharp on my bedside table a scolding tea a tea that burns my tongue and throat into my stomach down into my arms down into my arms and up into lungs lungs that pause and clench the heart my heart that clenches to a question is the skylight closed in her 14-year-old room my 14-year-old’s room built eight years ago which went unused when her head lay with mine unused when her head lay next to mine before the ghost in the blues of my dreams in the blues of my dreams a ghost in my arms circles the altar of our family room our family room with a cornered orchid pink flowers faded beside the stone pink flowers beside a stone I once held when I birthed her raw out over my room when I birthed her roar out over our room that first night alone her held in my arms this night now alone without her here held a silence raw between our rooms in her bedside drawer her secret was sharp on my bedside table a scalding tea
Competition –
An expression of an artist’s soul in colour and/or shades-
Death –
Coming head to head with another person, persons, team or teams to find a winner and a looser-
Book –
A piece of fruit tied to the story of Adam an Eve-
Carpet –
Surrendering of all tension in the body of being or in the body of the world-
Winter –
The opposite of life, the abyss of the unknown-
Painting –
A floor covering made of soft material-
Apple –
Pages bound together and filled with words or pictures-
Peace –
The coldest season
afraid of my own shadow
walking after curfew
on Nairm’s Spring’s edge
water hydrant bursts
on my street too close to home
lockdown 6.1
drawing by Rebecca Sullivan
model – Gloria Clarke
ANYTHING BUT COVID-19 is an online multimedia Arts Festival produced by The University of Melbourne
Drawings from Rebecca’s The Bird in Lockdown series were included in the Festival
Festival material can still be explored at this link: https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/students/graduate-coursework/enrich-your-program/enrichment-activities/anything-but
i battle with a body primed to run
the same as yesterday
what haven’t i done?
what have i done?
i haven’t taken my pills
i have taken my pills every day
a guilty urge to hide in bed
it’s then i remember
we’re still in lockdown
i think of my feet
i feel into my hands
.
interrupting my tricks to fix
a familiar sound
thumping feet on the floorboards
a wide gait trot
from his bedroom to mine
.
he pauses at the edge of my mattress
giggles when he meets my eyes
roughly pulls up the doona
bums his way into bed
and begins stroking my skin
mummy’s shoulder he sighs
then moves his hand to my mouth
Shhhhhhhhh
.
we have time this morning
a suburb away
today his sisters are with their dad
no school runs
no disability day service
just him and i
with nothing in particular
to have to do
.
Shhhhhhhhh i copy
blowing the sound onto his hand
do it again he delights
Shhhhhhhhh i sound
onto his forehead
.
He rests his face onto mine
the hair on his chin
a soft prickle on my cheek
my exhale slows
he sniffs at my mouth
wincing at my un-brushed breath
he pushes my shoulder away
cuddle Mummy’s back
i laugh and turn
.
he spoons in close
strokes the skin on my collar bone
his nose tip touching the back of my neck
Mummy’s shoulder he sighs
parting one point five
among the lavender
a myna feather
five k ruled radius
behind a fence
frayed bird of paradise
mask-less men at work
the seven sides of a stop sign
a grey gum forks
electric wires
my muzzled breath
distant school bell sings
suitcase on the nature strip
in roller-blade knee pads
an old man paints
the broken lock
on a gate that swings
stage four curfew
eight pm
rings around the August moon
3rd August 2020, Melbourne
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