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States of Poetry - Poems

'Bricks and Lightning' by Ellen van Neerven | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

by •
States of Poetry Queensland - Series One
States of Poetry - Poems

'Bricks and Lightning' by Ellen van Neerven | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

by •
States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

It seems I'm always walking
into the scene of a crime
moustached copper
and fuck-off tape
don't look too closely
you won't be able to sleep
I'm new to this building
I live now by the river where
the ducks look like shoes
in the water
I go to the department store
we used to frequent
I look at grocery receipts
to see how I'm saving
and sometimes I get so lonely
I can barely stand it
tonight I wanted you
like the rain wanted the streets
my building was one of two
struck by lightning
a chunk off the top
spilt bricks on the road
I am marked
drop a Google pin into my heart
like they say in Alice
when the Todd floods
this must mean I'm staying

Ellen van Neerven

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Ellen van Neerven

Ellen van Neerven (born in Meanjin (Brisbane) in 1990) is an award-winning writer and editor of Mununjali Yugambeh (South East Queensland) and Dutch heritage. Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Ellen’s second book, a collection of poetry, Comfort Food, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize and highly commended for the 2016 Wesley Michel Wright Prize. Throat is Ellen’s second poetry collection, a May 2020 release. 

(Photograph by Anna Jacobson)

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Comment (1)

  • This is beautiful work. I've just been reading the others of Ellen's poems on this site, very impressed. A true poet; straight through skin and flesh to touch the core. I'm going to seek her out in bookshops.
    Posted by Anne-Louise Luccarini
    18 October 2017

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