We had some incredible poetry submitted to GLASS Issue One: Breaking the Stigma. Ahead of the Launch on Thursday 27 February, we thought we’d feature some of the great poets online since we didn’t have space for every single poem we received – the QUT Poetry Community is alive and well, for sure. Find poems below from Jak Kirwin, Chloe Mills, and Georgia Sanders, and stay tuned for more poetry coming to GLASS soon. Make sure to check out their other poems in the print edition.
War Is A Racket That Gives Men Meaning | Jak Kirwin
Nuclear sunset
Damn nice
Blood red
Origami youth
Fever dream blisters
Awful truth
Guns are blazing
People too
Skeleton men throw their dice
And slurp up Zyklon from their shoes
Chia | Chloe Mills
there’s a lemon tree at the back
of his house
pronged trunk of charred
black and acid pops of yellow
he grinds the oily toothed leaf
in sour molars
lemonbalm drips on cut
lips
bleaching sun burns tops
of feet stretched out on
woodgrain veranda, soles
scraped raw
on concrete, sides
of fingers stained brown
from the smoke.
you split lemons in crescents
spit pips in dirt
but once
you loved a girl
with a name like seed
Russian Doll | Georgia Sanders
She’s heaven sent but earthly bound,
She’d hate it if she were thought profound,
She’s happiest with her head kept down,
She’s wise beyond her years.
She comes from that cruel part of town,
Where slobs dance to the drumbeat sound,
Of bottles falling to the ground,
Drunken fury and sober tears.
The apartment block should be set alight,
The babies bark and dogs cry all night,
The freaks meet with instruments of plight,
Their needles and their spoons,
But she’s asleep up in her room,
There’s calm beneath a pale glow,
She knows the world spins but it never spins right,
She dreams of ice caps coming loose.
Well her mother wrapped her up in blankets
Then she left her in the cold
So one day when she is older
She could be a Russian Doll.
