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From: Vol.10 N.01 – The Transformative Now

The Changing of the Rug  

by Julie Watts
in muted rooms
the damask is spoiling

in backyards         the pastoral 
slipping         stories dropping stitches 

in the dark         every street sign         echoing 
a cast-off scream.

at night         the emu spreads its storyline 
across a rusted sky – the night-crier's bells  

ringing         hollow         go on         and on
into         a shackled morning.

another narrative         begins to form in 
shivers         its possibilities running 

down the necks of the dawning curious
could this         could this be?

there's a low moan in the distant hills
along the river-line         needle-points

of red         on the pale roses         the dank
reeds leaking         shadows         into the fraying

silt.         the rug is changing –         the buried 
weaving         into the sun and oranges

motifs of summer gardens         unplucking 
themselves         all the white-washed stories 

trembling in the threads.      
kaleidoscopic imprints         flicker       

a silent gasp         an ancient hum
yes         this could be. 
Published: June 2023
Julie Watts

is a Western Australian writer published in national and international journals and anthologies. She won The Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript 2018 and her second poetry collection, Legacy, was published by UWA Publishing in 2018.

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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