States of Poetry Poems
States of Poetry 2017 - ACT | 'The colour of eyes' by Merlinda Bobis
The colour of eyes
For Banduk Marika, Aboriginal artist
1. After your story of the funeral, August 1991
Black, Banduk, is the colour of eyes
like night shrunk
when grandma tidies after grief.
Perhaps she could not spill
to stain the room.
Black, Banduk,
this quaver fisted
in her throat –
it has no moon,
it ache ... More
States of Poetry 2017 - ACT | 'An argument in glass' by Merlinda Bobis
An argument in glass
For Jenni Kemarre Martiniello,
Aboriginal glassmaker
As you hold me,
you think your fingers know
I’m glass magic,
this slip and slide on cool satin,
then suddenly I’m water
and an eternity of greens —
O song of sea flowers,
you make drowning
beautiful.
Or so you say.
But what of other ... More