New Poetry by Michele Seminara

Bow and Scrape 

How freeing, to bow out; there's wisdom in it. 
Mind's tumescence halted. 
What's twisted in you 
no longer twisting 
in me. 

Silence is best. 
Stillness. Trying not
to put a word wrong. 
(I speak so circumspectly 
these days even the dog won't come!)

Enough. Just keep going.
(But let's admit it's not much fun.)



Blinds

I close the blinds to block out probing eyes.
The roses on the window sill
                                         still flame against the sky.
Darkness crawls out early    from the rain.
A stranger calls    to check    that I'm alive.



The Fall

One day I shall fall
down those stairs
and it will be 
a release.
As 

I fall 
I must surely recall 
my children and feel ashamed. 

The fall will create an elongation
in time, a lacuna for recapitulation.
And nothing will flash before my eyes—
Nothing. Only darkness; easeful darkness. 


- Michele Seminara 2016


Michele Seminara is a Sydney poet and chief editor of Verity La.