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From: Vol.04 N.01 – Where to feel now

The Lungfish’s Refusal, Steinhart Aquarium, San Francisco

by Lucas Smith

Three mischievous logs lie on the gravel

in the dreary middle of a showcase

on shocking ways of aquatic survival.

Valisneria waves to the burnt face man

 

and he says, take a breath fuckwits,

I want to see you breathe, he says

And as if to the sound of trumpets

One lazy log rises above the rest

 

to middle water. A kid pounds the glass

then moves on, the albino crocodile’s

next door, eating lamb, the man is steadfast

take a breath dammit, go on.

 

The missing blue-eyed link investigates

each corner and settles ignorantly down

with its antique grinning blue-eyed mates.

Published: January 2017
Lucas Smith

is a PhD candidate at the National Centre for Australian Studies. His writing has appeared in Australian Poetry Journal, The Lifted Brow, Australian Book Review, Cordite, Gargouille, Santa Clara Review and several others.

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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