Elizabeth A Martina Ryan

Gig Ryan] (1956 / Melbourne

Thelma's Hamlet

1.
But now his boated smiles like a brother...
She glues through the shops' bare gift and drapes
Why decorate this wreck?
arch caught in a pillar
not like it used to be
He descends inside bright imagination
serving persuasively
Harness another day's tightening windows
whose patched blind whose watched screen
So not surprised having extinguished
those nearest and. Rivals gather like cavalry
trying to knock from her
Food's out of the way
but new drugs, slavish and excellent, scale and not covet
What stencilled plume rises above her head
to sincerely dub those fortunate
to pass or rock the players' sickled tears
2.
Under the suburb's Dutch sky
the freeway's lake
Drive towards the flag
on its slate-squared tower

but fawn night glides
and past work like embossed plasticine
cyphers and falls, scattered dolls
It's one big moomba
On speaking terms, bereft and ultimate
Keep your flogged programme
and nagged ghost
The roué's charmed life ends
and then nothing.
say the drive-in flowers
and books.
95 Total read