Angela Costi


2035 
 
Our skin grew another layer to cover the crust.
We pooled our fat to slide across the malignant terrain.

The soil fueled our organs with microbial.
We sweated acidic waste then licked it clean. 

The core heaved and vomited entrails of elder Elms.
We waded inland to escape tree murder and suicide.

We slept in swamps to dream lichen, flowers and moss.
Came limb-to-limb with a dazzling Eucalypt. 

She was ample in girth so much like our grandmothers.
We weaved our gangrene sinews into a cradle. 

When she fainted, we eased her fall to a gentle thud. 
Parched bark, leafless – still a sight to behold.

Angela Costi is the author of four poetry collections including Honey and Salt (Five Islands Press, 2007) and Lost in Mid-Verse (Owl Publishing, 2014) and nine plays. During ‘lockdown’, funding from the City of Melbourne enabled her to work on her current poetry manuscript: An Embroidery of Old Maps and New. Her poems (and video poems) are published in recent issues of Rochford Street Review, Writers Resist (USA), Backstory – history journal, and in print, Australian Poetry Anthology Vol.8 and Our Inside Voices - reflections on COVID19 anthology, AndAlso Books, QLD, 2020.

 
 

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