by RODNEY WILLIAMS
for K & R & I
In a paper bag from a pharmacy
he gives a bare biography
where Gurney as poet-composer finds
no peace in notes dug from trenches
counting out measures in an asylum.
In his entrance off a wheelchair ramp
he vents with rare antipathy
stomping a clink from kitchen crockery
needing no nurse’s trolley on rollers
for himself no lockdown either.
In our doorstep chat through face masks
he shows despair: antibiotics
still leave bloodstains in his Somme
since the love he’s collected works with
is not here to share words of intimacy.
– Merri Creek, Westgarth/ Northcote, VIC