States of Poetry QLD
Dots twirl along my veins
At least a dozen in each arm
Blood-test confetti
from a diagnosis party ...
Maps are for memory. I see
palm trees by the forest. Their shadows
form an X at noon. I dig
using hands feet mouth, bite
against treasure – not gold but worry dolls that I spit
out like multi-coloured teeth into my palm.
Anna Jacobson is a Brisbane-based poet, writer, and artist. Her poetry has been published in literary journals including Cordite, Rabbit, Australian Poetry Journal ...
'Pliny the Younger to Tacitus' by Zenobia Frost | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two
On Pompeii, 79AD
The violence of that night. I sat
notating Livy, through
the earth’s contractions.
A thin dawn-choked sky
shook chariots. The crowd rolled back
onto itself. Neptune threw up animals.
Every thing convulsed. On the shore
across, a great black cloud broke
with light. Shrieks rang out: endless
night, with gods up ...
'Distractions at Rental Inspections' by Zenobia Frost | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two
1. Toowong
A possum nestles
in the split
crook of the kitchen’s
plasterboard ceiling.
I shake my attention
back to the man who peddles
the empty front ...
It’s a town with a veggie patch
in the cop shop yard.
Outside the grocer, with shelves
of tins and faded VHS tapes,
a boy on a scooter asks,
Are you looking for wi-fi? as if
he’s bootlegged some to sell.
In the café we bemoan the goat-track
we drove in on: the Elephant Pass.
Swaying huge and daft,
the van was elephant enough< ...
Maroochydore, 1999 – After 10 Things I Hate About You
A girls’ weekend. Just me, Mum
and Blockbuster, probably fish ‘n’ chips,
surely chocolate.
Maybe I mistook the word menarche
for men-ache, watching Mum watch Heath Ledger
croon the song that she said
once lured her into marriage: ‘You’re just too good ...
\\ everything before was
fine \ sure \ orderly love
\ I recollect \ aisles of ex
in home-brand \ sober
\ procedural acts \ leg
by leg \ recipes for low-
fat sex \ clear-cut \ past
tense \ a lab report on
routine me-and-thems
\ but \\ oh // and then
/ emboss the date of I
and you / you effortless /
a loo ...
Zenobia Frost is a writer from Brisbane, Australia. Her work has appeared in Overland, Cordite, Arc (Canada), Scum, Woolf Pack, and the ...
'Conversation with a Decommissioned Electric Chair' by Samuel Wagan Watson | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two
Circa September, 2015
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
I first admired your arms, brown and unrefined like mine, the scars and veins unhidden. Straight
back. Strong neck. An inanimate object that would never be cau ...