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I bend to the hard bead
of sap, and breathe.
Come bail me out, sings
the canoe to the moon.
I crawl through a cannon.
Scene: a parting shot.
Birds like tire scraps
along an interstate.
It widows me: flask weather,
egg carton clouds. Clouds
like empty finger casts.
I scream when the neighbours
do so they'll think
I'm watching the game.
Kissing sounds compose
the dogs. I strike, as one would
a set. Once, I screamed
when Mrs. Peterson went
into labor. She rushed
to the taxi in a fur coat
like some kind of car wash.
The epic ends: I am still
in love. See the simple black
of the bear’s hide? It was achieved
with three hundred whumps
of the press. Sprinklers spur
the stucco. At the last moment,
the first diver produces
a glass of water from his sleeve.
Come bail me out, I sing
to the wall. I circular breathe.
I wake with glitter in
my beard. I wake trying to scrape
off my beard. Men are peeling
windows from the buildings,
revealing bricks. I will wash
my mouth out with sugar.
I am not a newspaperman,
that is a photograph of my lover
in my hatband.
 
Poetry
Johanna Aitchison
Michele Amas
Angela Andrews
Sarah Barnett
David Beach
Ken Bolton
Jenny Bornholdt
Rachel Bush
Mary Cresswell
Stephanie De Montalk
Cliff Fell
Tom Fitzsimons
Brian Flaherty
David Geary
Bernadette Hall
Kerry Hines
Andrew Johnston
Therese Lloyd
Iggy McGovern
Mary Macpherson
Dora Malech
Vana Manasiadis
Emma Neale
Gregory O'Brien
Lucy Orbell
Zach Savich  
Charlotte Simmonds
Marty Smith
Elizabeth Smither
Abby Stewart
Robert Sullivan
Jo Thorpe
Cath Vidler
Louise Wallace
Ashleigh Young

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