TEXT poetry

Chelsea Avard

I can’t write blue-eyed poems
Like his
Maybe never could
I remember that desire
As though it belonged to someone else

I can write my little things
My strange little things
That think and feel
I care more about them than before
And I judge them less

I can’t make things
That are light
Full of hope and air
I think them and I feel them
But they turn to nothing on the page

I can make these things that hold
Things that grind
That push back
Press
Like thumbs into soft flesh

Green-eyed things
Redheaded things
Sharp-chinned things
Like bodies
Thinking less and doing more

Like a hand beneath your chin
Like teeth grazing your lips
A fingernail tracing your spine
Blue gaze caught in mine

Chelsea Avard is a writer and teacher from Adelaide. She is co-editor of the short fiction and poetry anthology The Body. She holds a PhD from The University of Adelaide, where she currently works as coordinator of the Writing Centre. Her short fiction and poetry has been included in a range of works including the Sleepers Almanac, anthologies by Wakefield Press, University of Philippines Press and Midnight Sun, and online publications Verity La and Red Fez. Her poem, ‘How We Stay’, won the 2017Verandah Literary Award.