Anne M Carson



Harvesting sweet pea seeds
    after reading May Swenson

stiff crumpled clothes the plant has
lived in     ready to discard     ready

to turn to dust     all the green gone
the growing done     pods brittle in

the hand     bony vein and spine
ridges     tendrils once muscular

spiral in on themselves     dried to
desiccation     arabesques of arrested

movement     sharp bursts of sound
cut through the garden silence

surprisingly loud     inside the papery
pods     delicate with hairs     seeds

rat-a-tat     a sound not green
but bone     bleached and blonded

past colour     miniature gunshots
voicing death     they rattle in their

pod     shake in their shell     embryos
tap-tap-tapping against the walls

the new within the old     the living
within the dead     the call for release



Anne M Carson has been published in the USA, Ireland, France and widely in Australia. Her first collection, Removing the Kimono, was published by Hybrid Publishers in 2013. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Ron Pretty Poetry Prize. As a Creative Writing Therapist she has edited three books. She teaches Poetry Writing and Appreciation to adults. www.annemcarson.com
 
 
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