My name is Jilly O'Brien and I would have liked to have had the balls, when younger, to write "lion tamer" and "novelty biscuit maker" on entry and exit visas in and out of Argentina and Chile. Looking back, it seems like a pivotal moment in my life - when I chose to write “student” instead.
What else should I write? My name is Jilly O'Brien and I like writing poetry. I don't want to immerse myself fully in it yet and would like to climb out at any time, but for now I enjoy the absolute lack of pressure and therefore ability to experience "flow" that poetry writing offers. I like the fact that one person loves your poem and the next person thinks it utter shite. That's how it should be.
My Knee
The arrow scrawled in permanent marker
Atop the fluoro scrub, points at surgery
An elephant for surgeons who forgot
theirs -that pen leers insouciantly, at me.
Make sure you wear your undies, one friend says
Another rings to say she knows the nurse
in theatre tomorrow- I’ll be fine
It’s just like lifts and flying – nothing worse.
Painkillers, nurses, sleep, Panadol, pills
Exhausted from resting, circus solutions
Jugglers, trick ponies, chariots,
Parade me to far distant ablutions
Procession farewells camaraderie
Intimacy replaced by solitary.
