Anne Elvey


paper tears


scored
around the edges, day
was a paper doll i pressed
out. i pressed out the clothes too
pinkdress|whitesocks|whitebow|blackshoes
each with tabs i folded
back and fitted
to the day

cut
with the best scissors, day
was a tableau of relatives and friends, feet under chairs, beer cans on coffee tables,
comfort and tears saved for another day

sliced with the bread
knife, day was a miniature house
with two storeys, eight rooms, central stairs
to the left front door was a tableau of friends
and relatives, drinking their tears

placed with a          child’s care, day
was a tableau             of paper dolls
in the left front   downstairs room
in the miniature        house, where
on the dotted lines                              with the best scissors
i scored                                                    a wake

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a capella for four (post) colonial voices

1. pass the index cards
2. William B. has
3. a flagon
4. and Wilma next door

1. arrivals: ship: the Marion
2. bare feet
3. in a paper bag
4. plays tennis

1. name: William E.
2. a feather armband
3. hugged to a chest
4. sunned, sunned

1. distinguishing marks:
2. beads for seeds
3. Will
4. sweeps the court

1. self made tattoo
2. and hair braided
3. claims the park bench
4. and waters

1. around the right thumb
2. by a willy willy
3. and the grog
4. to settle it



Anne Elvey’s poems have appeared most recently in Australian Book Review, Eureka Street and The Best Australian Poems 2010. Her poems were shortlisted in the Peter Porter Poetry Prize (March 2012) and the Newcastle Poetry Prize 2011. She has three chapbooks published, Bent toward the thing (Rosslyn Avenue Productions, 2012), Claimed by Country (PressPress, 2010) and Stolen Heath (Melbourne Poets Union, 2009). She received a Writers Victoria Writing@ Rosebank Fellowship which she took up in February-March 2012. The Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash University, and Melbourne College of Divinity support her research and writing. http://anneelvey.wordpress.com/
 
 
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