2 Poems by Stefanie Bennett

CONTACT

Unacquainted -, they'll take
The bread
From your mouth -;

The lantern's
Black soot
From the lectern.

It's okay

That the patrol
Is not aware
Of the pebble
You placed
In your           Shoe

- The 'theism'

Of the rhyme -,
The reason -,
Astutely kept.


THREAD

That book by Aleksander Wat
Housed the stone echo
Of a rose-water fountain

And the unrefined epithet
Of a tutelary
Sparrow. As well

- It held the orchestrated
Drift of
Freedom-come

Where all is no more than
A storm
Passed over...

In my back o' Bourke's
Back-pack's Dusty pocket I carry

The wild call of
Dissident worlds
Torched bare.

One crow's peck
Away
From grandeur:

... From despair.


Bionote

Stefanie Bennett has published eighteen books of poetry, a libretto, and a novel. Over 40 years she has acted as a publishing editor, tutored in The Institute of Modern Languages at James Cook University and worked with Arts Action for Peace. Of mixed ancestry [Italian/Irish/Paugussett-Shawnee], she was born in Townsville, Queensland, Australia in 1945. Stefanie’s latest poetry title ‘The Vanishing’ is due at year’s end. Publisher: Walleah Press.