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From: Vol.02 N.01 – Otherkind

I exited bamboo,

by Michael Aiken

lantana, eucalypts, stept

from a shell on the shore of the sea

pacific and awake

to nothing.

 

I was born with small birds in my eyes,

hair of sticks, leaves of sand

paper coarse and wild on the edge

a single lawn, a grove in the mountains.

 

Sacred place, elided and eroded

erased.

 

I emerged from bamboo

I enter bamboo groves, a forest-copse

semi-seen.

 

I am the silvereyes and coucal pheasants

never remembered

 

a fox on the beach carefully eating eggs.

Published: January 2015
Michael Aiken

is a writer and singer from Sydney. His writing has appeared in various publications including Best Australian Poetry, unusual work, Shampoo and foam:e. His first collection, A Vicious Example: Sydney 1934 1392k1 – 1811 1682k2 was published by Grand Parade Poets in September 2014.

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

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