December 2023
Selectors: Coral Carter, Rose van Son, Barry Sanbrook, Gary De Piazzi
Contributors:
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the old barn
beside the dogwood
scent of manure
woodsmoke …
campers singing
into dawn
this barren oak
outside my window—
another sick day
birdsong
back and forth
the old park swing
Rowan Beckett
___________________
backyard fire
tobacco flowers curl
in the flames
Sabrina Blom
___________________
autumn blues
the verve of spring and summer
lost
Pitt Büerken
___________________
a piñon sapling
grows into our view
christmas tree
Alanna C. Burke
___________________
after the end
of our talks
clanging wind chimes
Ram Chandran
___________________
uprooted ironbark—
the storm
still in her voice
Lysa Collins
___________________
cherry blossoms
how light
her head on my shoulder
Alvin B. Cruz
___________________
estuary jetty—
I cast my line
into moonlight
I listen for her
in the silence—
weeping willow
Anne Curran
___________________
downsizing …
planting flowers that fit
the north-facing window
Maya Daneva
___________________
strawberry patch—
red Chinese lanterns
hung low
road map—
veins of a leaf
against the light
curl of a wave—
everything set
to collapse
Gary Colombo De Piazzi
___________________
Nullarbor highway
air haze from hot bitumen
hitchhiker wavers
Kathleen Dzubiel
___________________
candlelit casket
the fingerprints
of closure
David Kāwika Eyre
___________________
his small hand
in mine
heartsease blossoms
Candy Gordon
___________________
Christmas morning
a flock of cockatoos
decorate a red gum
desert highway
a family of white crosses
point west
Louise Hopewell
___________________
a snail
moving into the garage
early autumn
Govind Joshi
___________________
afternoon nap …
the serene face
of a scarecrow
train whistle …
all her silent
prayers
Samo Kreutz
___________________
Smokestack
blowing
our future
Airport—
carrying the bags
under my eyes
Chris Langer
___________________
good neighbours …
the basketball thumps
at set times
birthday cheer …
those no longer here
still here
Earl Livings, Melbourne, Victoria
___________________
sullen sky—
what’s left of the sun
smells of smoke
John Low
___________________
hippie gardener
digging the scent
of weeds
bicycles by a creek
summer’s end
upended
Marietta McGregor
___________________
palace garden
the cry of a peacock
answered by crows
windswept sedges
the warmth
of sandstone
Leanne Mumford
___________________
Jellyfish
dim stars
in dark water
Jan Napier
___________________
blackberry bramble
from flower to flower
a bumblebee’s stripes
Polona Oblak
___________________
Light snowfall …
the quiet
accumulates
M. R. Pelletier
___________________
september rain
I learn the scent
of pine
tom cat
his beaten up
akubra
Gregory Piko
___________________
high rise – a city grows up
Barry Sanbrook
___________________
cat in the window
watching the world pass by
store mannequin
Maureen Sexton
___________________
empty shop
the barber gazes
at his own face
winter sky
a rainbow arrives
on my way home
Manoj Sharma
___________________
calculating
the hypotenuse
mating dragonflies
Joshua St. Claire
___________________
half-light
the rooster decides
not to wait
ancestral farm
a sapling takes hold
of the roofline
drought
wheatfields withhold
their promise
barn doors
swallow nestlings open
their beaks
widowhood
the love-in-a-mist
gone to seed
Debbie Strange
___________________
chilly morning—
last garden flowers
on a market stall
Steliana Cristina Voicu
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