Photo (CC) osseous (Victor Martinez) @ Flickr
The Door
She locks herself in the loo and presses
her back square against the door. She closes
her lids and swears she can hear the ocean.
The emerald swell engulfs her, salt sticks
to her gangly limbs and dries and tightens
her pocked skin. She is driftwood floating
to crests and troughs different from her own.
Here the sea buoys her, guides her ups and downs
till she is moored in mirage. Disorder
waits outside the door: interrupted, sleep-
deprived thoughts – the door handle digs into
the small of her spine – blue moods and trends ebb
and waves of confusion come crashing in.
Seaweed slips between her fingers as
she counters the current, sand scratches at
her toes, and the tide takes her away to
… Knock, Knock…
The roar of the ocean fades to trickling
in the cistern, the sea breeze stings like bleach
in her nostrils, and the breakers dump her.
mythology
he is writing a home of words for you
portmanteau windows with rhymed panes of glass
he’s designing a myth on the threshold
that both his doors and his plot hinge upon
white noise notes are sprawling across his page
clicks of keys and the language of latches
he lures with his architect recipe
of mulled positions and latticed lines
racontes-moi une histoire, cherie
the one about Apollo and Daphne
an arboreal border protects you
from his terra cotta couplets and his
lead-light laurels you labour to out play
him, only, your own face will forbid it
ABOUT THE POET
Erin Martine Sessions is an emerging poet based in Sydney. Contrappasso is the first place in which she has been published. Later in 2012 her work will also appear in Sparks, the Sydney University Anthology, and Volume 11 of Swamp, an online magazine for creative writing postgraduates. Erin has a Bachelor of Ancient History (Honours) from Macquarie University, a Bachelor of Christian Studies from the Australian College of Theology, and a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Sydney. She is a part-time student, part-time registrar, part-time librarian, and always a poet.
Contrappasso Magazine: International Writing 