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Damen O’Brien

Damen O’Brien

Damen O’Brien is a multi-award-winning poet, based in Brisbane.  Damen’s prizes include The Moth Poetry Prize, the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, and the Newcastle Poetry Prize. Damen has been published in many journals, including Australian Book Review, New Ohio Review, Mississippi Review, Poetry Wales, Cordite, and Island.  His first book of poetry, Animals With Human Voices, is available through Recent Work Press.

'Carpool', a poem by Damen O’Brien

September 2021, no. 435 23 August 2021
Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, the rain blew youinto the backseat, steaming and boisterous, my quiet sonand you his not-friend-Dad-we-only-share-some-classes,or late evenings, sunset dampening down the final laparound the oval, falling into the backseat, grass-stained andsweaty, for a grunt or two about school and other tyranniesand then we’d have the radio on for the trip to your house,or my ... (read more)