In this episode of Australian Book Review's States of Poetry podcast, Francesca Sasnaitis introduces Kate Llewellyn who reads her poem 'Oxytocin' which features in the 2016 South Australian anthology.

Oxytocin

On this bright morning
a cruel wind is up.
I don't care –
last night I strode among the stars.
Black swan shelter in the sandhills' lee,
while pelicans stand preening
on the lagoon's edge.
We each must share our little pill
of poison – a tattooed drummer,
a drunk, a married man –
while we sit at kitchen tables
drinking tea with other women.
Rain pelts down the windows
while we talk about the promises
they made. It's enough to make
you laugh since it's only down
to chemicals. When oxytocin floods
the brain, fools and dills
and maniacs look irresistible.
I don't care –
last night I strode among the stars
and my brain drank by the gallon
the chemical that makes me think
he's wonderful.
Now I'll need a thousand cups of tea
and tears measured by the litre
to flush the oxytocin from my brain.
Sunsets seem meaningful,
rain is glistening on the neighbour's roof
like tears. The rhapsody of nature
only underwrites that last night
I strode among the stars.

Kate Llewellyn

'Oxytocin' appears in 'States of Poetry - South Australia'. You can learn more about States of Poetry and read the full anthologies here

Read Kate Llewellyn's biography in 'States of Poetry - South Australia'