Tim Heffernan

(for samar)

today

there is a retirement expo

at kembla grange

but only yesterday

i learned that you had gone

too far

in my garden

are some plants i am trying

to keep alive

i thought the native pea

was dead in its pot

but there are a few

new shoots

and the transplanted

tree fern still has

promise in an

uncurling frond

i am sorry that

i could not

sustain

your watering

Tim Heffernan was awarded the 2016 joanne burns prize for his prose poem ‘barunga conversations’ and shortlisted in 2015 for ‘butterflies in iraq’. He is co-editor of Verity La’s, ‘Clozapine Clinic – The Frater Project.’ Tim has enjoyed exploring ‘mad poetry’ both in print and as spoken word at recent Queensland and Wollongong Writers Festivals.