New Poetry by Mark Roberts

A new normal

for the community in the Blue Mountians


Smoke seeps through walls
we wake to gardens covered in ash
burnt bush carried high
on wind gusts   a sacrifice
you don’t understand
and so will be repeated.

Sun dimmed in afternoon haze
a black circle around party pink
fading to a defeated grey.

Over the ridge new weather patterns are
being invented. Sheets of flames swirl
into cones, billowing clouds dark with fire
throw lightening bolts at fire trucks.

Wait for the wind to change
decide whether to head east or west.


- Mark Roberts 2019


Mark Roberts is a Sydney based writer and publisher. He is the founding editor of Rochford Street Review.