By: Linda Mcquarrie-Bowerman
In a house ransacked by chaotic domesticity,
we babysit my sister's grandsons. Childless,
I excel with a dog, cat, or anything with more
than two legs, so I sneak off leaving Nonna
in the kitchen, pre-coffee muddled, t-shirt inside
out and glasses sliding down her nose, said dog
now pulling against the lead and dragging me
into the low-hanging branches of a lemon tree,
its heavy fruit one hundred suns. I look up
to see Nonna near the open window plating
toast triangles and boiled eggs; I hear her say
patience is a virtue knowing the boys
won’t understand the words. The tone of love
they know and it hums around two little heads
and the woman with long wild silver hair. Watching them
I stand as stiff as the power pole the dog is sniffing,
my choices ringing in my ears: discordant bells.
Linda lives in Lake Tabourie, NSW, Australia, and is completing her Degree in Creative Writing at Curtin University, Western Australia. She’s written most of her poetry since 2021 and has so far been published on Viewlesswings.com, in The Ekphrastic Review, Right Hand Pointing, One Sentence Poems (OSP), the Star 82 Review, with work forthcoming in Misfit, and two pieces selected for Brushstroke, the 2022 Ros Spencer Poetry Award Anthology. Her poem ‘Shiver’ has been nominated by the Star 82 Review for Best Spiritual Literature, formerly the Orison Anthology.
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