Sheena Blackhall Poems

I am a blue rectangle
Think sky, in a cramped box
Think no frills convict overalls
Think bluebird road kill
...

My cat sighs,
‘I want to be a celebrity
I deserve to have fan letters sent
From Katmandu
...

There is a glen inside me
A stag stands within my skull
A curlew echoes in my inner ear
...

Today at the opening of parliament,
To celebrate Queen Victoria's love of India
The current queen will be dressed as an Indian temple dancer
...

Australia gave us kangaroos, cochlear implants
Koalas, boomerangs, the Barrier Reef
And Les Murray, whose mother miscarried
And died when he was twelve
...

Nobody cheered, blew kisses, threw bouquets
There was no feasting, no celebratory sighs
No church rang with blessings, no prayers rose
To heaven, like chiming, footloose butterflies
...

Who wrote your song?
I, said the blackbird
Why do you sing?
I must, said the blackbird
...

Like grey fur boulders rabbits huddle down,
Ears pressed back like sleeves,
Raiding the grassy larder of the fields.
...

Stirlin Castle lay in Inglis hauns
Beseiged bi Scots, a biggin strang an stoot
Edward, the Bruce’s brither, ringed it roon
Ettled tae sterve the furreign sodjers oot.
...

1.Africa Africa

Fower doors ben, new neebors.
Immigrants. Black Africans.
...