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