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From: Vol.05 N.01 – Stick in a Thumb and Pull out a Plum: Poetry and Comsumption

Six Days in a Convent Far from Here

by Lesley Synge

or the St Joseph’s nuns at The Haven, Emu Park, Australia

 

the slow road north –

roadworks and the sight of

an overturned car

 

blessed are those who wake in a bed made up by nuns

 

wrapped up in green leaves

in the convent garden –

a small package of ants

 

on the beach

the wind snatches away

the straw hat he left in the car

 

blessed are those who wake in a bed made up by nuns

 

a boundary fencepost

is now driftwood

and salted white

 

like the television ad i heard one night

a little brown owl calls

where the bloody hell are you-oo?

 

blessed are those who wake in a bed made up by nuns

 

uprooted tree –

i upturn the Buddha’s advice

and meditate in the roots of trees

 

a kookaburra gang

not jovial at all

laughs while persecuting a magpie

 

blessed are those who wake in a bed made up by nuns

 

rainy day –

in the mirror of the dark bathroom

i look so young!

 

without much sun

the sea is silvery-cobalt

and stretches on and on

 

blessed are those who wake in a bed made up by nuns

 

ninety years ago, my jilted grandmother

came here

and decided she’d brave mothering alone

 

blessed are those who wake in a bed made up by nuns

Published: January 2018
Lesley Synge

lives in Brisbane. Her poet’s film, Mountains Belong to the People Who Love Them, is on YouTube. Her illustrated e-novel, Cry Ma Ma to the Moon (about poets in a love triangle), is available on Amazon Kindle as is her most recent work, the biography Wharfie.

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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