Jane Williams is a poet and short story writer living in Tasmania, Australia. Her poetry collections are 'Outside Temple Boundaries' and 'The Last Tourist', (Five Islands Press) Her short story collection is 'Other Lives' (Ginninderra Press).
Link:
After lovers
after lovers
treasure hunts begin
searching for nothing
as magnanimous
as a pound of warm flesh
a toe nail clipping
would suffice
nothing
nothing but this forgotten
jumper that smells
infuriatingly of nothing
but pure new wool
Denial
when I say we were never lovers
the lie divides itself between us
like an only child
still
to show I mean business I cut
my hair because it belonged to you
I take my mouth from your mouth
my name from your name
I do not touch myself in this
my hour of need
without you I am learning
how to breathe
Messengers
at night it is the bogong moths
frenzied as monks in a mosh pit
seduced by artificial light
in the morning it is the pink robin
breast displayed like a sacred heart
announcing death or a miracle
between these two my own wings
beating as if treading water
against the deep end of sleep
I pray for amnesia and dream of you
