Geraldine Burrowes

the clang of the chain

a modern cow can produce

ten thousand litres a year now

how to remain in over-

work wingtip formation

surfing the up-wash of the bird in front

flap choreographed precisely to get where he’s going

circuiting sulphur blue moons

high costs in a chilling collapse of compassion

species are falling in absolute ways

all we’ve spent    undoing

earn      a burn-out    score

eventually

learn in return

an oversized teddy ramification

drawing the essence of the map

stare out the window    all the way shaking

the swing structure up and flipping

it over to get

to the shopping board

where the sewer-market snake head snaps

and even as you cut

it’s biting you back

Geraldine Burrowes’ poems have appeared recently in Cordite, Plumwood Mountain, Rabbit, Otoliths, and Southerly. Another is forthcoming in The Age. Earlier works were published in Visible Ink, Paradise Anthology 5, and Baw Baw Writer’s Pre-Scribes. She received a Highly Commended in the 2011 Geelong Writers Poetry Competition, and a Commended in 2013. A first collection of Geraldine’s poetry is forthcoming in 2015 in the Rabbit Poets Series. She is also a visual artist.