Photo (CC) Kevin Dinkel @ Flickr
*
Breakers
Each wave
before it falls
…………….in a white-wash
…………….of its own decay
aims
I think
to make it …………whole
……………..to shore
not one
ever does
.
*
.
Indelible
Certain things don’t come out ever.
The blue mould aura in the cracked
ceiling of the bathroom. Bleach,
absence writ large as presence,
in the royal blue tracksuit.
The ring stain on the mattress
of unknown origin, matter, fluid,
lover, that leaves it to be rejected
on the doorstop, even by the Salvos,
despite the knowledge that many
tonight will be sleeping on worse.
Things said to you on the school bus
to which you had no answer.
The discolouration of the bottom lip,
chewed over and over, leaving a tooth-
shaped bite of purple in the flesh.
.
*
.
Centre
The centre of me moves
…………………………Today for instance
it is that hollow place beneath the ears
where the gland dwells in its jaw cave
Sometimes it is the drumming gut
Sometimes breath
…………………………or a woman
and sometimes
that dark cavern under the ribcage
of Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson
…………………………horribly emptied
…………………………At least
these are all the places
at which I can be undone.
.
*
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SARAH RICE won the 2014 Bruce Dawe poetry prize, co-won the 2011 Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, placed third in the 2014 FAW Shoalhaven Literary Awards, and was shortlisted in the 2014 ACU, 2014 Axel Clark, 2013 Montreal, 2013 Tom Howard, 2013 Jean Cecily Drake-Brockman, 2011 CJ Dennis and 2011 Michael Thwaites poetry awards. Her limited-edition art-book of poetry Those Who Travel (prints by Patsy Payne, Ampersand Duck 2010) is held in the NGA as well as other private and public institutions and libraries. Publications include the Global Poetry Anthology 2013, Award Winning Australian Writing and Best Australian Poetry 2012, Long Glances: A Snapshot of new Australian Poetry 2013, Island, Southerly, Australian Poetry Journal, and Australian Book Review (forthcoming).
Contrappasso Magazine: International Writing 