UNREQUITED WORK
He puts away the pocket watch
of a meeting interrupted off-the-cuff
he thinks. My pitch is an emoji sent
after Lentil As Anything diverts us
both from picking petals out of daisies
above a creek. Swift skid on
banked grass. Weeds effervesce
humour at my bafflement, adjusting
my mind to here. I retreat to write. A
buttonhole needs mending. When
I bumble into an op shop, a white-
bearded man tells me he likes to wave
at Vline trains. He sets his clock
for them. Through my cabin door
I see a water dragon, climbing an
embankment, while the ceiling
gives me vertigo. That work I
held. That work of lift. That work
approaching cloud. Aspiration tugs
toward ground. I am craving congruity.
Anne Elvey lives on Boon Wurrung Country in Seaford, Victoria. Her poetry publications include On arrivals of breath (2019) and White on White (2018). Anne is managing editor of Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics. She holds honorary appointments at Monash University and University of Divinity, Melbourne.