A slight change of pace...

Recently, I joined the Southern Highlands branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers.  It's been wonderfully inspiring, I have to say.  Each month, some writing topics are given as a kind of non-compulsory "homework".  This month, I actually tackled one!  The topic for poetry was "New Times".  Here's my effort:

New Times

She sags against the pier her filthy robe

A mockery.

Too blear and dull to clean or wash or dress

Matted hair in lousy, rank disharmony

Her blackened fingers rhythmically harass

The stench fouled air.

She stinks of piss.

Pedestrians avert their eyes and skirt

Uneasily.

Discard a glance of pity or disgust

The city gleams with commerce, shines with industry

In this showcase of the prosperous, there’s no place

For such as her.

They’ll move her on.

Along the foreshore lights begin to glimmer,

Beckoning

The leisured and the young to come and play

Lover’s murmured voices drifting promises

To the twilight, not for them the close of day

Their universe

A world of hope.

Between the pylons, wakened to the darkness

Muttering

Her every sharpened sense alert and bared

She battles them again; again remembering.

With all her strength, defends, she sees them clear

Those torments past

That shroud her still.

                                                   Kerry Miller

 



Incidentally (or perhaps not so incidentally...) I was searching for an image for this post online, and found an Australian charity that provides sleeping swags for homeless people.  The image above is from their site.  If you are interested, find it at:  http://www.swags.org.au/index.html