Mother of Pearl
“Crumpled white shapes bobbed at waist height just past the verandah — the glowing heads of wild iris, their spiked bodies dark and rustling underneath. Standing among them was Sal, her hands held out so that the flowers head-butted and kissed her knuckles and wrists, and Jo couldn’t have said why but from then on she trusted Sal, and started looking at her straight on instead of sideways…”
Pump Action / Someday, I identify as a Prairie
“I opt-out of the binary & the boldness shivers dusk, how cold berates a child. / how a lightning stammers in the hands of a cop, / learning to quench his flame on an effeminate child…”
Flying to Queensland to see my Mother / Soldier Crabs
“That evening, sitting in the car, / your cheeks wet with saltwater tides pushing / from your moonlit eyes, / you carry the vulnerability of crustaceans…”
Sounding Line
“And / it's barely perceptible when / you do move: a small pebble / cast from the boat, and then / another and another; the / tentative ripples stay close…”
Crowd Surfing
“I am crowd surfing / A congregation of queers all with their hands up to support me…”
Before long
“This way, this way / you find nothing else said / but drink a late brew tea / on the fibro shack porch…”
Kagati ko achaar / How to press flowers in 8 easy, natural steps
“I snuck a jar of your lemon pickles to Germany in my luggage. I savoured every last piece, every last drop. Boju, I think I have magic too; I stuffed our whole home into a jar…”
Smouldering Wildflowers
“wildflowers, sunburnt, smouldering, little / petals of wanting, murmurs / tickle my ear…”
As if it Was Always There / Fungi Earthworm as Arthropod Fish
“The sea disappears into itself. / We hold onto nothing, not even / the day’s warm breeze, white gulls returning / to the flat tide, the sun that fades slowly…”
How to Not Drown / Sea Sponge is Feeling Stuck
“today you are blobfish ~ paranoid anchovy ~ rusting wreck ~ but even bleached and brittle skeletons of coral ~ have been known to regrow afresh ~ after a nuclear blast…”
Blue-footed booby / Blood, sweat and spittle
“Whilst you glide away / from the ruins with your fledgling brood towards / new horizons, the last laugh’s on them. They— / with their strange little kinks, slurping on your saliva, / calling it the caviar of the east…”
Citroen C3
“now / in this scrap yard / a part of my chassis / is a safe place / for pink anemone / to climb…”
Reader I / Occam’s Knife
“She pulled my tenderness from me, pulled / its soft body against the beds of oysters / and lit the remains fluorescent, the better / to clearly see. She named this act science…”