☛ We are inviting submission in the field of literature and literary theory in the form of article, book review, poem, short story, travelogue and interview for our regular April issue (Vol. 6, No. 2). The last date for submission is 31 March, 2025.

BESTIARY

 


BESTIARY

 

-         John Charles Ryan (Australia)

                                                                   

balga

its slow-growing stalk

ascends to arid heavens

carrying breath prints

 

fern drops

metallic water

poised like gutter rain backed up

to burst on mind thatch

 

giant kelp

in Tassie waters

seaweed waves of purple pale

the ocean breathes out

 

reticence

vased kangaroo paws

emboldened greatly to red

by draughts of dewsap

 

olfaction

this garden fragrant?

nay, I detect acrid notes

of rubbish and bleach!

 

lumen

oracular blooms

index the pitch, pull, and pulse

of the desert moon

 

fractured

honeypot flowers

gathered up the pieces and

salved his sore sutures

 

bruised

is this a hip bone,

a welt to give, to bemoan

a tomahawk thrown?

 

 

first

new faint lemon tufts

under trident banksia

were dandelions

 

landing

someone has fallen

outside five thresholds to grace

tilting like treetongues

 

making sense of bestial forms

calamari tube?

a lighthouse at head of land?

stick caught in a flume?

 

bestiary

golden snail parade

anthers dizzied in storm light

leaning left—cackle!

 

****