Estates
Here, on empty blocks,
the grass fists and flames,
sizzles by day
or hums with the dull voltage of insects.
The houses built are set out neat
as breakfast on a tray:
the water tank,
the shed, the velcro-lawn.
Now it’s evening, lights come on.
You hear the echo
of a bouncing ball,
bikes rewinding the streets home.
A train brews to boil
then simmers;
the crossing bangs
its pots and pans.
Allnighter
Stepping out at three, for something
with more bite than coffee,
the uni hums like a program
left running: a mind turning over in sleep.
A sprinkler is chopping the night
into cool slices and, through trees,
are the red gels and molten-blues of the city,
where perhaps no one’s awake;
paths and roads chilled in a soft-drink glow,
the river stilled to a lake.
Aidan Coleman has authored three collections of poetry, which have been shortlisted for national book awards in Australia. His latest collection, Mount Sumptuous, was published last year by Wakefield Press and his first collection, in which these poems were originally published, Avenues & Runways (Brandl & Schlesinger), has recently been reprinted. He is an early career researcher at the J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide.
Header photo by tokar, courtesy Shutterstock.
