Woodstock- struck by winter
a cold wind breaks up the sky. cold
/makes
decisions (ending)
a shade of frost descended on the grasses. to the west
a light beyond the trees
this pasture, seeded by blood before all else
becomes more desolate, further cleared of any life
over the paddocks
the land, sub-divisions to form fence lines, lands for
farmers and trainers of dogs
die in winter
an asphalt road rises
to carry bodies free
to the colder cities, barricaded by concrete structures,
the tin of our roof a shadow left in the past
father and mother
the voice of dirt slides so easily beneath your eyes
and how? our skulls
empty/ would turn together into darkness.
the farm cleared away
to place more houses
(yet I’m imprisoned in this skin)
aged beyond a crimson sun-
the open fields trapping paths
clouds sounding above the opening of winter
youth will have destroyed us, first, stretching for acres to reclaim
that stolen joy, thinning by the headlong yards
of greyhounds
this land that speaks nothing
of forefathers
buried heritage/a sadness unspoken
in hands gripped to the sheds
leaving rurality
then, dreamt we could climb through the trees
enter a world beyond
a century ago land free of all but farms
dirt roads centering the district diverged into corners of earth
an isolation forcing action, at the foot of the alleyway
the rains have dampened the grasses into
pools
of
mud
our land, brothers
no man understands
consuming
internal decay such as this
without love- death suddenly brothers- and too young for it?
senselessness/ clearing the empty paddocks
viewed from the empty weatherboard house-
setting within the flesh a quietness
screaming to break the body
a reason perhaps for blood/
stemming blades of grass
by my bedroom window.
(both this morning, beyond)
an impulse, then
action.
Robbie Coburn is an Australian poet based in rural Victoria. His work has been published in Australian journals and magazines such as Going Down Swinging, Cordite (forthcoming), Unusual Work, Regime and Rochford Street Review. My first chapbook Human Batteries (Picaro Press) was published in 2012 and my first full-length collection Rain Season was released by Picaro last year.