Similarly, there was a point in my life when, if you asked me, I would say I wanted to write poetry for a living when I grew up. I didn't exactly go to "poetry school" (largely because such a thing doesn't exist - certainly not in regional Australia), but I did study literature and once submitted a poem for an assignment on Literary Criticism (something that didn't go down as badly as I had expected).
My friend did, at least, produce art that ended up on walls in galleries at some point. Apart from a couple of competitions (and the odd assignment), I've only ever "published" my poetry in blog posts. I still dream that one day I'll put together a tome of verse and have it published - even if I have to resort to vanity publishing.
My artist friend and I both have trouble sleeping, and I joked recently that we should spend our extra waking hours producing still-life works (one of my favourite artistic genres) - she in pen and ink, me in verse and short prose. We could put together a multi-format show from our midnight sketches.
Of course, having said that, I had an overwhelming urge to sketch some household objects with poetry, didn't I? Well what's the point of having a blog if you can't use it to self-publish your own two-bit verse?
So, for your reading pleasure (or otherwise), I present a verse still life:
Kettle and Toaster
The kettle and the toaster
do not match.
It's not just that they are
different brands
different colours
different materials -
But that they are so clearly
bought at different times
from different shops
with different budgets.
The kettle
metal
sturdy in silver and black
Is upper middle class
and meant to last.
The toaster
plastic
flimsy and white
Would look at home
in a make-shift kitchenette
in the bedroom of
an impoverished uni student
in a share house in Kirwan.
They do not match
Right down to their cables
Side by side
Black and white
in the electrical plug in the wall
- "Karuke"
