Selected poems
Coexistence
The dweller in the bone attic
holds countryside as home;
thinks of food, safety, health and warmth
for family, self and group.
Frenetic scuffles rage in the brick canyons
where the hunt is commerce
and food constructed.
Eyes turn to flickering screens
ears to technology.
No time to stop or care
what the attic dweller needs for peace.
Keeping a record
Feelings get obscured
at each turn
on life’s twisting path.
Yet by writing
the flurries of emotion
to save them being lost
the journey can linger
to trip the tears
loosen a laugh
resonate.
Plague
Friendship, jostle and commerce
spreads the illness
while grief and worry grows.
Travellers transport the plague.
Farms and factories slow or stop;
toilers, teachers and children are trapped at home;
the old most at risk.
Cities try to close their gates
hoping the illness outside is barred
and that inside will die.
Contagion stalks through lands and months.
Worried people lobby rulers
to pay for the fearful quiet.
Back of the tiger
Was it the slow slide
after crippling early abuse
or does your body hold some weakness
your mind a derailing flaw
that sets danger prowling
to attack and damage
destroying self belief
holding you to addiction?
A thief from family and friends
can you deny the craving
today, with help
to take one big step?
Paul Williamson is an Australian poet. He has published poems in Australia, UK, US, Canada and Japan. His has five collections including Edge of Southern Bright (Ginninderra Press, 2017). He contributed to and participated in the release of the Canberra/Nara Twin City tanka poetry volume in Nara, Japan in late 2018.