Mascara Literary Review

Issue Five - June 2009

Graham Nunn

Graham Nunn is a Brisbane based writer, co-founder of Small Change Press and a founding member of Brisbane's longest running poetry event, SpeedPoets (www.speedpoets.org). He is the current QLD editor of Blue Dog: Australian Poetry Journal and is the Secretary of the Australian Haiku Society (www.haikuoz.org). He has published 4 collections of poetry. His latest collection, Ruined Man is now available from www.smallchangepress.com.au

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among cheap thin-walled rooms

stuffed full of sweating fat men

trying to remember old dreams

the rain all afternoon all evening

its quiet rhythmic sound

before it grew too dark I watched

pigeons drink their own reflection

the room elongated the fourth wall

too distant or too dark to see

no moths at the window

only a swaying power line

raindrops dripping from it

one red spot fading on my thigh

where a flea from the mattress

shared my warmth my loneliness

and returned into the weave

Break Away

This landscape folds in on itself. Everything that

moves – wind, dust, laughter – changes. Streets

soften. Sunlight plays across glass, but windows

appear blank unless viewed from within. Walls

begin to sweat & sour. We give it up & go.

ii.

You've put on your Marilyn perfume. Our old

letters have never smelled so sweet, our

memories seemed so true. I've plotted our escape

to the island – dawn light breaking in the window

salt breeze carrying the ocean's secrets.

iii.

It's past noon and the weather can't hold. Take off

your silence and your coat. Let's chance it - throw

ourselves to the season. There's a cold that starts

in certainty. You see? There's only one thing

left to do. Sweep you off your feet.

iv.

Here's a necklace of water, of awe. A puzzle

that began the night your mother walked

along the shore and took the ocean by its lapels.

Empty your basket of black stones. When we

arrive, sunlight will follow, the waters will calm.