Bio
I'm an Australian poet living on Cammeraygal country. My first volume Rare Bird (Recent Work Press 2021) was short-listed for the Anne Elder Award.
James Lucas
RUOK?
My question asking if you are OK
in full knowledge that yes may well mean no-—
monosyllables build the barricade
perimeter beyond which we can't go
into the sanctum where you admit fright,
a precious hell guarded from special op
humanitarian fact-finding flights—
must voice loving concern. And then must stop
to wait on answers truly indirect,
accept teenager-brokered terms of love
are spoken in non-sequiturs and gaps,
a small concession I did not expect
enough to give stalled confidence a shove,
to tell us that you are OK perhaps.