Poetry Drawer: I once lived in Sydney: When I was a child: I dread the hour by Dr Susie Gharib

I once lived in Sydney

I once lived in Sydney,
the Venice of the very Far East,
where boats glide on ancient waters
that mirror a kaleidoscope of things,
some yachts, aeroplanes and fairie dwellings,
all basking in coves and bays of tranquility.

There was one particular bay I haunted
that had a house so close to the beach
with a wooden seat,
where I sat fantasizing about being part of that unattainable idyll.
My bedroom would be the one that faced the sea
with the waves my lullaby every moon-lit evening.
My eyes would greet the sea-born sun every sunrise
and before it sets in,
and all the shells that deck the sand
would remain where they could inhale the brine
of the deep,
no holes to puncture their hearts,
no strings to imprison,
no roofs to cloister their singing.

When I was a child

When I was a child,
I came to the rescue of ants
by ferrying them across puddles on tree-leaf rafts,
and prepared a funeral for those that perished in the aftermath
of a storm that had no rainbow
or a covenant-pact.
One of my brother’s matchbox cars
served as a hearse.
Flowers were placed where a hole was dug
and a solemn face served as a prayer for the newly interred.

When I was a child,
every object I beheld instantly came to life.
I was able to commune with stone
and pine trees were my confidantes.

Because I could no understand the sky’s native tongue,
she scribbled messages to me in the form of clouds,
the alphabet of the skies,
which I was able to imbibe.

The stars, the blessed souls of my departed pals,
kept a watch over me
and shed tears, falling lights,
when I for the irretrievable pined.

Schooling and the religious establishment
instructed me to strangle whatever beliefs I held
before they became poisonous to my mind and faith.
And when I could not prove to my friends
that those objects were not inanimate,
I intimated to them in later times
that man was more capable of being insensate.

I dread the hour

I dread the hour when I shall learn
of another inevitable betrayal to come
in this never-ending, treason-driven turmoil.

It’s in the way you lower your furtive eyes,
mobilize your lips to force a smile,
then shuffle your feet to assemble a departure
that evades the encounter,
for the Judas kiss is not a part
of this forecast.

I dread the hour when I shall feel
your poison seeping into my veins
like an invisible disease
to contaminate my streams
with the venomous filth of treachery.

Susie Gharib is a graduate of the University of Strathclyde with a Ph.D. on the work of D.H. Lawrence. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Green Hills Literary Lantern, A New Ulster, Crossways, The Curlew, The Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Ink Pantry, Mad Swirl, Miller’s Pond Poetry Magazine, and Down in the Dirt.

Susie’s first book (adapted for film), Classic Adaptations, includes Charlotte Bronte’s Villette, Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

You can find more of Susie’s work here on Ink Pantry.

Poetry Drawer: Dark plot: Without half trying: Pink Storm Kiss: Couth erg: Yum Yum Gin by Terry Brinkman

Dark plot

Looking under the bed for what’s not there
Dreaming of, climbing the Maypole
Drinking juices of the Olive Press
Kiss is the dark plot
White Rose scent, passion silent wearing a Blindfold
Making friends with a crying Robot
Alabaster silent dark woman smile
Violet stars but one, white star

Without half trying

Looms of sea moon light on Halloween
Making friends without half trying to work
Limp as a wet rag nobbling at her beer puzzler
Turned up trousers and a white alabaster shirt
Red stone nose rag old sloppy eyes guzzler
Like holding water in her hand not dirt
The moon sets before the clock’s muzzle

Pink Storm Kiss

Pink articulated lips, storm kiss of a Queen
Double dark increasing vaster Moon
Roses by a Bee was stung at noon
Said over her shoulder drinking perfect caffeine
Misty English steams of coffee from her canteen
Tide sheeting the lows of the Blue Lagoon
White rose ivory fur, sea cold eyes of a raccoon
Deep velvet looms of sea on Halloween

Couth erg

Washed away somewhat
Minitel scarcely mold
Hostel forget-me-not
Ireland’s west-ward cold
Under illuminated spot
Shriven Mass-old
Couth erg irk not
From out of the White Fire foothold

Yum Yum Gin

The Shepherd’s hour discipline
Fliting Trip overhaul
Sea-birds screaming at night fall
Rhoda den feminine
Penance for their broken chin
Breathing slumbers snowfall
Drunken women’s brawl
Yum Yum Gin

Terry Brinkman has been painting for over forty five years. He started creating poems. He has five Amazon E- Books, also poems in Rue Scribe, Tiny Seed. Winamop, Snapdragon Journal, Poets Choice, Adelaide Magazine, Variant, the Writing Disorder, Ink Pantry, In Parentheses, Ariel Chat, New Ulster, Glove, and in Pamp-le-mousse, North Dakota Quarterly, Barzakh, Urban Arts, Wingless Dreamer, LKMNDS and Milk Carton Press.

You can find more of Terry’s work here on Ink Pantry.

Poetry Drawer: The Rutted Track: Slow The Dark Wind Blows: Soon We Will Be Bones: Waiting For The Rain by David Ward

The Rutted Track

She waits at the gate, a raven on her wrist.
A wanton look lurks in her eye,
though her lips have never kissed.

She bids the travellers follow, along the rutted track.
She knows they will not falter
and never once looks back

across the wide flat fields, where crows peck all around.
The sky rides high and silent
and sheaves of wheat lie bound.

She leads them to a cottage and opens wide the door.
The travellers reach to touch her hand,
but then are seen no more.

Slow The Dark Wind Blows

In the field a lone boy stands,
a knot of thunder in each hand.

The cart comes rattling slowly.
Slow the bone cart comes.

Cold lightning clenched behind his eyes,
as in his head the wild geese fly.

The grey horse hobbles slowly.
Slow the old horse groans.

The sky cracks wide, a dance of fire.
His feet root deep into the mire.

The hanging air sways slowly.
Slow as silent stones.

Lost voices twist his bitter tongue
and will not heed the distant drum.

The dry dust rises slowly,
and slow the dark wind blows.

Soon We Will Be Bones

Soon we will be bones.
This robe of flesh will fade away,
no more to dance in forests green,
to taste the kiss of hidden streams,
to wander lost in misted hills,
to suffer fever, loss and ills –
but still walk on

to lie again in languid sun,
to feel the touch of sudden rain,
caress the joy of other’s flesh;
until at last all this is done
and only bones lie quiet, alone.

Waiting For The Rain

We wait for the rain to stop falling.
It came to us just before dawn.
We wait for the first light of morning
and the blackbirds to start up their song.

For here it must always be raining;
the faces that pass pale and long,
as if they all know nothing’s changing
and no-one remembers the sun.

For my dear, we will always be waiting,
now that the storm clouds have gone.
In the courtyards and taverns
we dance with abandon,
then wait for the sweet rain to come.

Pantry Prose: It Was Over Now by David Greygoose

It was over now. The moon had gone, back into the shadows where it hid.

The girl walked down from the top of the hill. She had been dancing all night with the hares and the ravens and all who came.

The low stone walls were dusty silver as she threaded her way along the lane and back to the silence of her cottage. She lit a candle and watched the thin line of its smoke rise slowly up the chimney and away to join the darkening clouds which rolled along the valley. They would bring rain soon enough and the rain would bring tears for the girl who had not cried since the last moon came.

She climbed the stairs to her bed and there she dreamed. She dreamed of the dancers out on the hill – how she’d seen them all coming, slipping out of their houses – and how they’d joined hands in a ring as the moon rose above them and seemed to shine, brighter than sorrow, out through their eyes.

But one boy did not come. He never came. He stayed in his cottage, locked behind the door, while thistles choked his garden and dull grey pigeons pecked at the thatch of his roof.

The girl set off down the lane to find him. Owls swooped low through the trees and dark water ran in the ditch.

She knocked on his door. She could see him sitting there in his room, the moonlight spilling through the window. He was weaving shadows between his fingers as if he was a spider.

She called out to him. She rapped on the glass with her knuckles. But he did not hear. He did not stir, just kept on weaving, twisting the shadows.

She climbed down the chimney. He did not turn his head.

“What are you making?” she said.

He looked up then and tried to smile, but his lips could not move. He had stared so long at his weaving, his face it seemed to be frozen.

A sea of shadows flowed from his fingers. The girl reached out to touch, but he waved her away. His lips moved slowly then and a sound came out, like the voice of a raven.

“The moon is full,” she explained. “You should come with us. Come to the top of the hill.”

The boy stood up. He let go of the shadows and the cloak he had woven slipped to the floor. The girl picked it up. This time he let her. She smiled and admired his handiwork. As the boy turned away, she gathered up the cloak and draped it around his shoulders.

He opened his mouth again and let out a great cry. Then he flung the cloak to cover them both, so that they were folded together.

And then they rose. Out of the cottage and along the lanes. Along the lanes and up to the hill. Up the hill till they stood at the top with all the dancers gathered around.

The dancers fell silent as the girl and the boy stepped from the cloak which slipped to the ground and blew away on the wind which parted the clouds – and there was the moon, staring down at them all.

And then it was gone. It was over now. The boy went back down the lanes to the darkness where he hid.

The girl walked back to her cottage and lit a candle. As she watched the thin line of smoke rise slowly up the chimney, she smiled – for she knew that next time the full moon shone, the boy would come again.

David Greygoose‘s published works include Brunt Boggart (Pushkin) and Mandrake Petals and Scattered Feathers (Hawkwood).

Poetry Drawer: At Brigid’s Forge on Candlemas by Nan Lundeen

Business as usual fights her fire—
            her reshaping;

her iron tongs grab
             frackers, drillers, extractors

by their stock options.
            She hammers hot metal

with the intensity of
            all the teenage Gretas

whose voices sere the ears
            of Wall Street financiers,

of politicians who ignore
            crackling ice, drowning

islands, dying phytoplankton,
            gasping seals.

At Kildare her flame burns
            bright with creation—scent

of hope fighting for breath even as
            carrion rules the day.

Killer whales’ whistles haunt
             the Irish sea, barn owls scream,

a school of herring darts
              under her wing.

Nan Lundeen has published poetry, fiction, and nonfiction at, among others: Atlanta Review, Connecticut River Review, Steam Ticket, Illuminations, Yemassee, The Petigru Review, Evening Street Review, patheos.com, and U.K.’s Writing Magazine. The retired, award-winning journalist lives in southwestern Michigan and holds an M.A. from Western Michigan University.

Poetry Drawer: Turning Dials: Commensurate: Bust of Revenge: Quartz Parking Lot, Ontario Street: Getting Loose: Eye Flusher: Over the Hill by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Turning Dials

You can bleed out in the heartland
and never find a pulse,
turning dials on odd contraptions
that almost turn themselves,
dustbowl feathers for the screeching Thunderbird
of myth, this sorry welling of brackish bail water,
silly corn maze competitions where no one ever wins
and this homely bramble bush woman
standing by a long-cracked window,
her hair up like a personal laundry line,
that lumpy oatmeal cold of an unshared bed,
dripping faucet from adjoining bad breath hovel –
falling out of love, out of tow job repo cars
dragged out of this dying garden.

Commensurate

All this talk of proportions and not a single usable
scale in sight; not coral-worn under the glance-a-lot sea
nor forsaking this long grand laze across galloping lands –
if I were a betting man, I would lose it all to the house
and move in under an assumed name, charge everything to
a room that is really just a view with mini bar,
sit up on hind legs like a skiffle band of nerves and polyps;
the tar for the feathers and everything gone birdie up,
a tear in the awning so that you know nothing is on the mend:
moth-eaten haberdashery, bumper car lisp,
this dusty lint trap fire in waiting.

Bust of Revenge

Move the plaster around all you like –
this bust of revenge, the hair falls away
like everything else you never really had,
the blood squawk of distant crows across cold winds,
shake shake booty trees bare as coming into the world;
force the hand, rub sleep from tireless eye,
build cheekbones high as ever-prominent mountains,
a valley cleft chin to sooth the sayers:
show the sweat, no one ever sees the sweat involved,
the wine of thinning lips, these many hours of compromise;
build the man into a city you can call home,
if only in the mind, count these many gardens
that refuse to grow.

Quartz Parking Lot, Ontario Street

Just tiny pieces in the mix,
but I find them,
take my time as if making fluffernutter
out of the marshmallow horizon,
in that quartz parking lot of the Scotia Bank
along Ontario Street,
across from the Soliel Dental Center
that overcharges for shoddy work,
kicking stones against the curbing as old timers
come and go,
drive off in cars that will outlive them
almost 2 to 1,
the windows rolled down like dollar store
parchment paper
while I feel my belly for a tricky hunger,
for growths that could be
the end of me.

Getting Loose

Does the tiger lament its enclosure?
You bet your stripes it does,
but I’ve been getting loose for hours,
this bottle here beside me like a tart purple warrior
who couldn’t give two samurais what you think
about swinging dicks in the field or anything else,
the most obnoxious music the ears could find;
you can keep your bloody date nights
and company gas card, I can feel the great unwind;
no filters, no fees…
just this Joan Jett cherry bomb getting off
as off as off!

Eye Flusher

Everybody knows about the careless man,
how he throws himself around like a ledge jumper,
a midnight automat leg pumper, every five-and-dime
eye flusher dreaming fountains back into spout –
I always wanted to die for as long as I can remember,
never because of the dead, but rather this blotted untenanted living;
that empty refrigerator way everyone slams the door,
but never out of a serious lasting hunger…
Don’t be so dramatic! says a handsome sandstorm of Ideaologues,
but it has always been there,
right behind the eyes like a bucket of stinking chum,
like a building with a rooftop waiting for jumpers
who bought what I always bought: that the inconvenienced store
never stays open; those many long-haul miles
the sleepy midnight truckers know so well.

Over the Hill

Just traversed, a simple cow town hill,
more mound than Everest, really
and stopping a few feet away on the other side
I look back, not out of any misplaced sense of accomplishment,
but simply to settle an unsteadied breathing;
the affairs of the deceased stuck in probate,
the living fighting over the dead as though no one
wants to be stuck with the cost of the casket –
if there was any love to be felt, I would want to feel it,
standing on the other side of the precipice,
hand on hips, watching the clouds in the sky
and the sputtering rust wagon cars
in traffic pass me by.

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Ink Pantry, Impspired Magazine, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review

You can read more of Ryan’s work here on Ink Pantry.

Flash in the Pantry: Blue-pencilled by Naga Vydyanathan

The shrill ring of the phone broke the busy silence of Arya’s workplace. It was from Ayan’s school, the principal wanted Arya to come over for a chit chat over Ayan’s recent abnormal behaviour. Arya gave a sigh, directed, not at her son, but at the school authorities – patience, tolerance and acceptance seemed to be in the want these days.

As Arya drove to the school, her thoughts meandered to her own childhood. She was a timid boy on the outside, always the butt of jokes for her feminine air. As a child, she loved dressing up, playing with dolls, dancing, and would burst into tears at the drop of a hat – all of these stereotypical feminine traits. Those were confusing, in fact, traumatic years, her mind was in perpetual turmoil between what it wanted and what was accepted.

She remembered how her parents had loved dressing her up as a girl in her toddler years – she had saved every picture from those memorable times. Looking through them, even now, brought a smile to her lips. It was a brutal shock to her, when, as she grew older, suddenly the “dressing up” or dancing was no longer viewed as cute. Being just a child of six, Arya couldn’t fathom the sudden shift in attitude. Her mom, who used to encourage her to prance around in borrowed frocks, now, showed disgust when she enjoyed playing with girls and dolls.  School was another hell where she was constantly ridiculed for being a sissy. “Act like a boy” were the constant words that fell on her ears. She was crushed the day she overheard her parents lying to their family friends about her, trying to portray her as a normal boy, albeit a bit timid. Arya couldn’t decide which was more cruel – not understanding or not willing to understand. She felt as if precious parts of her life were blue-pencilled by the world around her.

Then, at college, she met Arnav. It was a huge relief to meet someone who was similar to her, one who could understand her psyche. Life didn’t seem so bad after all. They decided to be a couple. After one last futile attempt at being accepted by her parents, Arya and Arnav started their life together in the US. What a cruel irony when the people and land that you view as your own do not accept you for who you are! 

As Arya drove into the school premises, bracing herself for the meet with the school principal, she promised herself that she would not try to mould her son’s life with a blue pencil. The sky was a pristine blue, reflecting the resolute calm running in Arya’s mind.

(First published by Flash Fiction North).

Naga Vydyanathan, a computer scientist by profession, is an aspiring writer. Being passionate about language and reading, it has always been a secret desire for Naga to be a writer one day. A thoughtful and deep thinker, Naga writes flash fiction, focusing on the minds and thoughts of her characters. Her debut flash fiction has appeared in Twist and Twain.

Poetry Drawer: Simony After Simon by Colin James

Sit quietly apart.
A server will approach
wearing a red apron
nothing else.
Order champagne.
The apostles dig it.
Bubbles provide tingle
that pass for euphoria,
which in actuality
comes later
according to the imagistic.
Bus your own table,
be a nice fellow
then depart.

Colin James has a couple of chapbooks of poetry published. Dreams Of The Really Annoying from Writing Knights Press and A Thoroughness Not Deprived of Absurdity from Piski’s Porch Press and a book of poems, Resisting Probability, from Sagging Meniscus Press. Formally from the UK, he now lives in Massachusetts.

Inky Interview Special: Rebecca Dempsey

Tell us about yourself.

Beyond scouring my poems to learn about some aspect of what I think about, I can inform I inherited my ice cream flavour preferences from my father, and my artistic interests from my mother. Before the Covid era, I undertook lessons in archery, swimming, and the Historical European Martial Art of 16th German Longsword. I kidded myself these past times were writing research, but mainly, it was all for fun. That’s not to say research isn’t also fun. Anyway, I like visiting art galleries and museums, I don’t drink coffee and rarely drink tea, and I believe no matter the temperature, humidity is my nemesis.

What first inspired you to write?

I was inspired to write because it was such a difficult thing to achieve. I was 10. I’d just learned how to read, and my mum had submitted a short story to a women’s magazine. After reading my mother’s story and unashamedly plagiarising it for school, I received astounded praise from my teacher. Mum’s story was rejected. Both of our stories were lost to history. However, ‘The Mystery Lights’ was the first positive feedback about writing I experienced, and I wanted that feeling again.

Which writers inspire you and why?

I’m more inspired by the works than writers. I’m wary of having heroes. However, I’m inspired by good poetry anywhere. As for works, Perdido Street Station by China Miéville took me a year to read, and I had the most fantastical and visionary dreams while absorbing Miéville’s vividly rich world. I found that inspiring. Decades ago, I attended a lecture by Isobel Carmody, who described her career, which began at 14 when she started writing the first book of what became the Obernewtyn Chronicles. She brought the draft, a stack of paper almost as tall as she was. That impressed upon me that while a writer can have a compelling vision, it takes effort to see it to fruition. More recently, I was directly inspired by a live streamed hosted by The Red Lemon journal editors: their discussion of embracing the poetic in the everyday was helpful. As a result, I wrote a poem about a supermarket that was just accepted for publication elsewhere.

What themes keep cropping up in your writing?

I find I need to consciously anchor poems to something concrete, (like bridges, or crockery), by which I can explore ideas or feelings; mostly these relate to myths, the natural world, time, change, and cycles of life and death, binaries, such as light and shadow, and interruptions to binaries. These feelings and ideas can also float around looking for flotsam to cling to in order to be a poem. However, the opposite is true too. For many works, I have the thing in mind, but it’s waiting for the ideas and feelings to pop out to meet them, like opposite poles of a magnet instantly attracted.

Tell us three things you learned from studying your Masters in Writing and Literature?

I learned I was capable of completing a longer piece of sustained work, while realising where I needed to improve, and what my limitations were. The course was an opportunity to consolidate my interests in a way I hadn’t had before. As to specifics, there was some tricky rhizomatic thinking, based on A Thousand Plateaus, as applied to historical fiction writing.

What is your opinion on lower case poetry/communication?

My take is informed by my experience of how long it took me to learn grammar. I’m all for writers knowing rules, and using them in formal communication, however, poems are their own nuggets of truth. Poets and poems can follow formal rules or ignore them. These days one person’s free form emoji poem is as valid as another person’s sestina: who wants to be the person arguing to illegitimatise artistic expression? There’s already enough going on in the world.

What are you reading at the moment?

I have on my bedside table Underground by Robert MacFarlane, and have been dipping into the exquisite poetry of Eileen Chong.

Have you any advice for new writers?

I’m a fairly newly published poet, however, I’ve been around long enough to trip over advice from others out there. My advice is that no one piece of advice is for everyone. Writers will occasionally need ways to escape fear of the blank page. I use limitation works can chafe against, such as word counts, or specific poetic forms. Previously, I have used call outs such as February’s Post It Note Poetry challenge just to write something, even if it’s tiny. Mainly though, once in the creative swing of things, keep writing. Don’t stop to think about writing, or read about writing, or dream about being published. Put down words, polish them, then send them out – that last bit’s crucial – I didn’t send out poetry for years and years, until I decided in 2019 it was time. Since 2019, my poetry is either published or forthcoming in journals around the world.

Have you ever been on a literary pilgrimage?

No. I grew up in small rural communities in South Australia, most of which acknowledged their literary heritage. During high school, the dual public/school library encouraged writers to visit. My mother grew up as a neighbour to a famed children’s author, too. Thus, literary destinations were places around me. It never occurred that people sought out the homes where authors lived, or visited locations like the setting for Wuthering Heights. Now, I live in an official City of Literature. In addition, I spent my youth reading historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy, which ruled out pilgrimages to Mars, the Vogon home planet, or the French Revolution. If I had to plan a pilgrimage, Umberto Eco’s library is probably worthy of an awestruck visit.

Tell us about your visual art.

Firstly, I’ve had very little formal training, everything I create is an experiment in colour, line, shadow and movement, and contrasts, and some kind of mindfulness, which is another way of saying it’s pretentious doodling, mostly in pen, pencil, and previously in watercolour.

What is your working space like?

Ah. Yes, my craft stable table-like thing upon which my laptop balances while I sit in bed is comfy. Sometimes, I sit at the kitchen bench. If I’m out and about, I take a notepad, or occasionally use my phone to write. It’s not exactly the artist’s garret of romantic imaginings, but it works.

What’s next for you?

I’m collecting words to submit to literary editor Angela Meyer of Literary Minded, as last year I won an Austlit competition for a consultation. In addition, I have new poetry and short stories coming out in various journals over the course of this year, and I’m almost always submitting work to journals or looking for journals.

Rebecca Dempsey’s works are forthcoming or featured in Elsewhere Journal, Ligeia, and Schuylkill Valley Journal Online. Rebecca holds a Masters of Writing and Literature from Deakin University, lives in Melbourne, Australia, and can be found at WritingBec.com.   

Visual art by Rebecca Dempsey.