Jake Goetz

6

weatherboard’s blur

as we pass down Banks Creek Road

to find the river in Fernvale

a packet of Roast Chicken SHAPES

OAK   Coca-Cola (registered trademark of

the United States)

and a polar bear crushed

between rocks along the bank

an excavator

DUMPS rocks

beside a dirt-bike track

as we walk along

the clear-green river

circles echoing

from the movement of fish

a rope swing mirrored

in the water

the water

mirrored in the trees

the trees in clouds

in water ripple

with 2 white maltese terriers

swimming

i undress

and sit in the shallows

undress you

my body

in the river

a body

Jake Goetz currently lives in Brisbane. His poetry has previously appeared in Plumwood Mountain, Cordite, Rabbit and Mascara amongst others, and one of his poems was recently shortlisted for Overland‘s Fair Australia Prize. He is the editor of Marrickville Pause (https://marrickvillepause.wordpress.com).