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.
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