Estrangement has its latitudes,
the most hospitable to residency, here:
trembling, trying to avoid extremes —
every day you are busy celebrating
two birthdays, slowly, you can have
your medication and take it too.
The first fall occurred at sunset,
that great star of lubricity creeping away:
age threatening to freeze every dimension
adding matter to memory — to keep warm
you retreat towards holographic nostalgia:
with one tired step after another.
Dawn inspires a youthful seriousness,
until the sun overburdens, with its abrasive
return. A lassitude circumnavigates
at the steady pace of your moveable
heimat. You carry the beauty you found
to be bitter, and a sense of obligation,
whilst casting a grave shadow
of hope that serves as your mirror.
Ben Hession is a Wollongong based writer. His poetry has been published in Eureka Street, International Chinese Language Forum, Cordite, and Can I Tell You A Secret?, the Don Bank Live Poets anthology. Ben’s poem, ‘A Song of Numbers’, was shortlisted for the 2013 Australian Poetry Science Poetry Prize. He is due to have a poem published in the upcoming issue of Mascara Literary Review. Ben is also a music journalist and a broadcaster on community radio.