POEM | I am my own person…

I am my own person, standing on the asphalt by a family of fallen plants

there is a terrifying shift in perception when the ground moves beneath you

it moves beneath people in office blocks and primary schools

it’s that specific feeling of being the only two customers in a restaurant

like everyone else knows something important you have missed

a single helicopter runs the sky. people jump train tracks to the emptying shelves of a convenience store, where teen staff replace breads and rice with roughly scrawled signs

rap music can be invigorating and empowering to the fragile human mind

like the touch and taste of water on a dry and nervous tongue

every dawn I sat at the PC by a fish pond refreshing website after website

and you slept peacefully under crooked picture frames and broken cups

the last time we spoke was on the train travelling at 300 kilometres pr hour

hurtling silently through the countryside together, eating nothing together

when we arrived everything was falling to the floor: the peanut sweets and the paper bills, the airbags and my face meets the asphalt road thinking something like I’m already late in reference to almost everything

in this moment we are the only two people who understand each other

on a small street in a large earthquake waiting to be swallowed by the ground

First published in Voiceworks. 2013.