Fear
Polly Harrison
Fear is the shadowed figure
in the corner of my room.
He watches me
casting his gloomy eyes on me, day and night.
Fear stomps on my voice box
causing my voice to tremble.
Fear is like a mosquito buzzing in the air,
just a soon as you think you’ve killed it,
it comes back, sometimes even louder than ever.
Fear is a monster.
It hides under my bed
waiting for me to close my eyes,
for me to feel at peace.
Then it jumps out, sending me back
into the same spiral.
A COUNTRY LIFE
Margy McLoughlin
Sugar and flour hessian bags flap in the sun
shielding us from the glare
Rivulets of blood and sweat spatter our face
as water filled canteens quench our thirst.
I’m a company man
shearing for bucks at a time
110 today, and that is not just the temperature.
Racing against the relentless clicks and clock,
this is a young man’s game.
Jillaroos and jackaroos compete for laughs.
As far as the eye can see
flat as a Johnnycake, dusty as a toothless broom.
Lanolin running down my arms –
I’m deep in Colleen McCulloch country.
I find my pace as flocks of sheep cuttings
flutter and flicker in the whirling fans,
destined for the runway couture of Paris.
REMEMBERING THE COALMAN
Martin Leitch
His face is as black as the coal he delivers
lined with white streaks from his sweating brow
His brown leather smock protects his back
from the hard carbon lumps contained in his sack
His black leather boots click between cart and bunker
with a permanent stoop from the weight of his load
He swings the sack with an almighty grunt
and empties the coal in a sooty dust cloud
He returns to the cart to heave one more load
and repeats his routine with a rattling cough
His horse waits patiently as he is given his cash
in return for fuelling our winter warmth
His cart is half empty – more deliveries to be made
he leads his horse off with a slow clip clop
relieved for the respite between load after load
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