'Distractions at Rental Inspections' by Zenobia Frost | States of Poetry QLD - Series Two
1. Toowong
A possum nestles
in the split
crook of the kitchen’s
plasterboard ceiling.
I shake my attention
back to the man who peddles
the empty front room:
working ceiling fan carpet
with pleasing bath-mat grit
natural light self-steaming
equipped with tilting dresser if you want it
and a front-row view of a famous graveyard.
I let the texture of his pitch
wash over, sneak my eye contact
in increments
up into the furrow: the sleeping possum,
the ceiling’s luxury embossing,
which like any real fur insists
touch me touch me touch me
2. Moorooka
It’s a break-lease.
We inch across tidal boards
that dip and creak, asthmatic
in the damp and dust.
We follow the agent
past orphaned dressers,
shelves, a piece of torn shirt.
The house smells of wet earth,
the bitter spice of deep-
dug yards.
Downstairs, the agent
unlocks the chain
and with two hands wrenches
the sliding door
off the bricked-in under-house,
rests it like a ladder against the wall.
In the yawning space, a nest
of mattresses.
The toilet
veiled by a shower curtain
seems subtle in contrast.
We are silent in the doorway. The agent
shrugs. I half expect to see
a pair of pliers,
a few loose teeth,
a bucket.
It’s as-is, the agent says,
but make an offer.
Zenobia Frost