SpeedPoets are itching to bring the howling sounds of poetry to their new home, Brew, located in Lower Burnett Lane in the heart of the City (see the map here). And bringing the poetic noise are three Brisbane ladies, Carmen Leigh Keates, Charity Carleton (Ichabod’s Crane) and Michelle Dicinoski.
Michelle writes poetry and creative non-fiction. Her first poetry collection, Electricity for Beginners, will be published by Clouds of Magellan in mid-2011. She is working on a memoir, Ghost Wife, that tells her own and other women’s stories about same-sex marriage, hidden histories, and belonging. She recently received an Australia Council grant for a new project about forgetting and obsolescence in the digital age.
Arterial
When the suburb sleeps, this bed hums
with the quakes of midnight trucks
that speed west two streets away.
For weeks I thought it was me—
some spasm to do with the heart.
While you slept, I lay here
counting beats, debts, receipts.
It’s these old houses. All tongue and groove
they move and shift in increments, sink
on their stumps, inhale and exhale the heat.
Doors drop on their hinges and refuse to close.
Tonight, late, our flatmate brings his woman home
and the tremors come again—
paperbacks shake on their shelves,
windowpanes rattle and
silverware, girlish, shivers in its drawers.
Beside me, you sleep
moving only your breath, your blood,
your fierce heart. Beside me, you sleep
as the dark house shifts around us.
First published in Re-Placement: A National Anthology of Creative Writing from Universities Across Australia, 2008.
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So be there for the opening of SpeedPoets’ 5th home… Sheish Money will be making his guitar growl, there will be raffles/giveaways and Brisbane’s hottest Open Mic Section. This one’s going down in history!
Date: Sunday May 1
Time: 2pm – 5pm
Place: Brew, Lower Burnett Lane, Brisbane City
Entry: Gold Coin Donation
