Category: Issue Eleven: Human Rights Poetry
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Issue Eleven Poetry: Human Rights
Speciation, A Cento Anne Casey Scarcity Commission, a cento Anne Casey A City Girl Anne Casey Examination Anne Casey Water Pistols Kate Maxwell Supreme Settings Kate Maxwell Fallen nomads Kate Maxwell A strand of hair Wendy J. Dunn Heiress with the beehive hairdo Denise O’Hagan hemline of lost memories Denise O’Hagan Shelter Les Wicks
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A Strand of Hair.
by Wendy J. Dunn She turned to her mother joy shone from her eyes The day was warm she was out not confined at home so alive young She laughed when a breeze caressed the uncovered skin permitted seen by her hijab she did not know wind had caught a strand of her…
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Heiress with the beehive hairdo
By Denise O’Hagan. Heiress with the beehive hairdo After Juanita Nielsen (1937–1975) Taking the short-cut from the station at the Cross to the leafy end of Victoria Street, I must have hurried past the tiny terrace at number 202 innumerable times, one eye on the stroller, the other on the alert in the way of…
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Fallen Nomads
by Kate Maxwell A bag of coal earned scavenging at the tip —toxic too, but now the last alternative to frigid slow starvation on the steppe will stop his children freezing in the Yurt while blanketing all in benzene, fug of carbon monoxide: its sulphur- smelling warmth seeping into lungs and brains, only to postpone…
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Supreme Settings
by Kate Maxwell Reset, restored a thousand times to factory setting but here we are again. Brightness set to dim, on mute until my data codes are reconfigured and they have wiped what I was never meant to see. Deleted all my memory. At least the ones which motherboard controlled. And options all recircuited to…
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The hemline of lost memories
By Denise O’Hagan. The hemline of lost memories Lier, Flanders, 22 October 1569 I know what you’re thinking, but there’s no need to be scared. This is my spot, these old church steps; this is where I pass the time wrapped up in my gown, the fabric of my life, all forty-three years…
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Shelter
By Les Wicks the pipes are blocked leaves are falling roots get into everything our windows wear epaulettes of dust those flowers never stop their complaints 50-year-old roof tiles like teeth never seem fixed phone lines are so ancient that all communication travels with a walking frame decline is everywhere one could walk…
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Examination
By Anne Casey In meticulous script, Dr Harris has recorded A Synopsis of the inmates of the Newcastle Industrial School, each girl assigned a number— recorded in the first column next to her Name, her Date of Admission blank in all cases—to be filled in later perhaps (after he had checked) but never…
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A City Girl: In memory of Mary Ann Deveney (1852-1896)
(After Henry Lawson’s ‘A Bush Girl’) By Anne Casey She’s walking in the dark and rain, as her mother had before. Her skirts are dragging in the drain, her feet are tired and sore. In ruined shoes with broken dreams, she bears the evening chill. Her dress is ragged at the seams; she’s nought to…
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Last stop
By Denise O’Hagan. Last stop North Sydney, 11.30 am, 2020 He was sitting at the bus stop A neat grey figure, hands folded Formal in his trousers, shirt and tie And beret from another age. He heard the scrape of shoes, the brush of trousers, And felt the old familiar panic stir…
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Scarcity Commission, a cento
By Anne Casey The potato crop has nearly disappeared; much distress at present exists amongst the labouring classes⎯ tradesmen and others are severely suffering from want of food; potatoes are fast disappearing, being used as food by the higher classes⎯ potatoes remaining not sufficient for population one month; the sufferings of the…
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Speciation: A Cento Evolution of New South Wales child removal laws, from inception to present iteration
By Anne Casey. 1866-1901 Every child whose age shall not exceed sixteen years found lodging, living, residing or wandering about in company with reputed thieves or persons who have no visible lawful means of support, or with common prostitutes— whether such reputed thieves, persons or prostitutes be the parents or guardians of…