shot glass
title
"... brevity is the soul of wit ..."
- William Shakespeare

Bio


Joyce Parkes is published in Axon, Plumwood Mountain Journal, Westerly, Overland, Meanjin, The Best Australian Poems 2005 (UQP) and in similar publications dedicated to literature and the arts, in Australia and in seven other countries.


Joyce Parkes


 

Of Cathexis and the Senses

(In memory of L.J.S. and M. v.d. S.)

When is a wave a greeting, a farewell, a brow
moving to address convention, a plea for help,

a ridge of water in oceans linking lands,
harbouring caves, tents, dwellings, incandes–

cence? Her grandmothers, one with a light
the other with a dark skin, both had red blood

in their veins - both grandmothers tended
to stretches of grass and grain, expecting

their granddaughter to consult the map of
moiety on her sojourn to and from other

countries, converse with cells of sobriety
and genes of passion, lusting to articulate

critiques and questions flourishing
in the province of cathexis and the senses.