Published in Overland Issue Poetry in Lockdown · Poetry Waiting for a train with Thelma Plum Tony Birch Penrith Station sits broken as a grieving heart in pieces the platform the waystation for essentially low-paid vital workers in the dead-days of iso-lation we have little time for each other and envy those slumbering at home flannelette pyjamas sleeping in enjoying raisin toast and warm Milo fucking the day to Netflix and Zoom on Penrith Station we’re in mourning except for the Girl In Black providing life in black boots black jeans and hoodie black/red/yellow flag on her back golden head-phones about to pounce she moves raises an arm fist clenched – ‘Hey! … Hey!’ – Fuck That Read the rest of Poetry in Lockdown, edited by Toby Fitch and Melody Paloma If you enjoyed this special edition, subscribe and receive a year’s worth of print issues, the online magazine, special editions and discounted entry to our literary competitions Tony Birch Tony Birch is the author of Shadowboxing, Father’s Day, Blood, The Promise and Ghost River. He is currently research fellow in the Moondani Balluk Academic Centre at Victoria University. More by Tony Birch › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 27 September 20244 October 2024 · Poetry Because a wind blazes Dženana Vucic Because after autumn there are / other autumns, / we learn to eat the wind. / This is what we shall do / with all our anger. 6 September 20246 September 2024 · Poetry Debts of the robots Corey Wakeling Repaying the debts of robots, / I see me in your screen fatally, which is / to say oozed certainty across a whistle of craft.
