Love Poem


Loved each other they did, and unconventionally
not at all, and times there were for foolishness,
undermining the mind of they tellingly, and faith
in words them had, and action more than this,
and together they were at a loss to gain or explain
how going sideways mapped a path to willing
away the us and we, their points of strength being
wistful and circuitous, and absence too, emotional
and even bodily until no sound could touch or re-
invent what all of them had, when music was
corruption, and books was, and being bookended,
they faced in one-on-one counselling strategies
certain to end the endings they were to remain,
and so they windbreaked or shelterbelted farewells
in deep knowledge, and goodbye said goodbye
to itself and they were home.

Anthony Lawrence

Anthony Lawrence most recent book of poems, Bark (UQP, 2008), was short-listed for the Age Poetry Book of the Year award and the Judith Wright Calanthe Award. A verse novella, The Welfare of My Enemy, is forthcoming in 2011 from UQP. He lives in Newcastle.

More by Anthony Lawrence ›

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