Poetry

Claire Albrecht

Claire Albrecht is writing her PhD in Poetry at the University of Newcastle. Her current work investigates the connections between poetry/photography and sex/politics. Claire’s poems appear in Cordite Poetry Review, Overland Literary Journal, Plumwood Mountain, The Suburban Review and elsewhere. Her manuscript sediment was shortlisted for the 2018 Subbed In chapbook prize, and the poem ‘mindfulness’ won the Secret Spaces prize. Her debut chapbook pinky swear launched in 2018 and she edited the 2018 Cuplet Anthology The Clambake.

 

hay fever

I want to break my own wrist
into the curve of my blundstone boot

no farmer, just a subscriber
to the trade aesthetic

                 [if only we knew all we needed to do
                 
to support drought affected Aussie farmers
                 
was shop at Woolworths this Saturday]

but I never could stand watching Landline.
I’d rather buy a bale of hay

spread it around the house
and propagate hayfever.

is this cynical? am I unfeeling?
I’ve watched this country die

I’m not afraid of fire
my bones are fine ground dust

a whirlybird out the car window
my breath the last clean water in the dam

bring your buffalo. put a gold coin
on its tongue. you’ve done your part.