Reneé Pettitt-Schipp
three o’clock above Bandung
and it rains
driving out ghosts –
motorbike men
in plastic-sheet raincoats
spectres unfurling
wet’s breath dissolving
valley and peak
in day’s new weight
we are lighter, each
drop a drawing down
and release
drains spill
fill with loss, sorrow, anger
net careless remarks
draw pesticides, suicides
plastic and poverty
sends them liquid-racing
to city
while for a moment
in the mountains we
are free
Reneé Pettitt-Schipp lived on Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands for three years, inspiring her first poetry collection, The Sky Runs Right Through Us, shortlisted for the Dorothy Hewett manuscript prize and released by UWA Publishing in February 2018. Reneé currently lives in karri country in Western Australia’s deep south. See further: reneepettittschipp.com.au