Poems: Foxing and Genesis

Foxing

These books, once new

have foxed themselves

and me,

adorning the bookshelves

in my lounging room,

nestling

in the near glow

of lamplight, rebelling

against all current

medical advice, edging

quietly towards

a right good tan.

Genesis

(For EK)

Your birthday this year

on the world’s far side

lets you walk

amongst remnant

ancestral footprints

on paths they once knew

but wouldn’t know now…

You are the rediscoverer,

the turner-back of time,

the holder of the spirit

that drew them south,

that bade them roam

from their old-world hearths

to a hemisphere unknown.

Graham Wood lives in Sydney. A former secondary teacher of English, History and Drama, he was also a cinema film and television program classifier, a government Education advisor, and public servant in the area of higher education policy and planning. His poetry has appeared in anthologies and journals, both print and online, in Australia and overseas. Five chapbooks of his poems saw publication with Adelaide’s Ginninderra Press over 2021‒2022, and his full-length collection Of Moments and Days, in 2023. Graham’s time is otherwise variously spent visiting children and grandchildren overseas, on voluntary advisory work in the field of cancer-related health services, and music composition for the highland bagpipe.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.