In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Fiona Wright reads her poem 'Set Piece' which features in the 2016 New South Wales anthology.

Set Piece

 Strange, that there are sequences
                 we live as cinema, if I looked
over my shoulder
I might recognise the front wall
of my bedroom
                opened out towards the camera,

my furniture as hollow
as a stage prop. I am
vicarious to myself:strange,

                                  that sometimes
we recognise significance
instead of burning it back in, much later
and imperfectly.
            Some nights I wake up
gasping at the air, I dream
I'm trying, through my sleep
                              to speak,

           to call your name
from the wet depths of slumber
but I can't will my mouth
to move: if we are unknown

even to our selves
how can we try to hold each other
still? I sit against
          the bedhead, my knees

press against my breasts. Outside
are stars, a car door slamming,
the last train shunting back into the depot.

Fiona Wright

'Set Piece' appears in 'States of Poetry - NSW'. You can learn more about States of Poetry and read the full anthologies here

Read Fiona Wright's biography in 'States of Poetry - NSW'