Michael Aiken is a four-time recipient of a unique and delightful child, and the founder, owner and servant-in-chief of Garden Lounge Creative Space, Sydney’s only specialist poetry shop and licenced café. His first poetry collection, A Vicious Example (Grand Parade 2014) was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize, the Mary Gilmore Prize and an Australian Book Design Award. His second book, the verse novel Satan Repentant (UWAP 2018) was commissioned by Australian Book Review for their inaugural Laureate’s Fellowship, as selected and mentored by David Malouf. His most recent poetry collection is The Little Book of Sunlight and Maggots (UWAP 2019).

 
 
Artemis, the moon, and a handball: nightscape

Playing with the moon
blue in my shadow
while you, my little guy
smile about slugs, treetops,
old school or new,
proper service during King’s Revenge…

Practicing your Spongebob voice
Schwamkopf,
silberschein
mein kinderlein, lÖcken
running on the field again
            
in peace

 

Elegy

There are no accidents
Said the turtle to the panda
Said the panda to the giant panda
Said the child to the man

and the man realises
he is a man

and the child goes on
realising nothing, realising little
of everything.

Nothing will come of nothing
a serpent consuming its tail

like it, a queen
the people talking

the Odyssey on its journey through space
family all put to sleep, the world 

all gone to sleep
the world all gone…

blonde god

Steps into water
don’t emerge

There are no accidents
You’re a great dad
I’ll be your mirror

Now the glass is absolute
elegy