Poems by Kathryn Hummel ​

Anatomy: Extended
 
Every day is a gift wrapped in fading paper
Let the surfeit of hours hang over your belt
There’s time to get to know your city pared down to the bone
Cement and sun construct an oven of unconventional force
the puff and blow from its source is all around
It knocks the old folk down
In spite of the weight that juts out your chin
the laden bough
of your body
never breaks
air is the suspension that binds your parts together
 
Parched grass, parched throats, parched skin
etched with stinging salt
all need drowning in drink
May the road rise up to meet you
On paper, we could all be just about perfect:
less correct
less precise in our direction
Scrawl philosophy on a coaster to shred and
sleep now for another day’s divining
Red wine creates with toothpaste a lavender-tinted foam:
the effect is soothing
 
The year before goes the way of the mandala
January blows out the wish that the year ahead
will better the one behind
Every day is a gift

Note: version of the poem has previously been published in Marrickville Pause.

​

Making Other Arrangements
 
Loving the one you’re with
relates to objects of
misplaced affection
some countries too
 
The glamour of hopping cities
becomes a dirty habit
kept for the 3AM washroom
a naked bulb
the only witness
 
Seeing other people
titillates to some extent
till you discover
they’re all same-same
beneath the accents
 
Settling down is
a colonial gamble
breaking up
is hard to do
 
your passport
just gets caught
in the middle
 
Transients are wanted
on posters taped
to street signs
 
visas obtained
by dialling
the number below
 
And don’t forget
if you download
the app
a discount applies

Kathryn Hummel is the author of four books of poems, with Lamentville (Math Paper Press), splashback and A Few Franks for Dearest Dominic (Prote[s]xt Books) forthcoming in 2019. Uncollected, her creative and scholarly works have been widely published/presented/translated/anthologised/recognised. Recipient of the NEC/Meanjin Essay Writing Competition prize and the Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Dorothy Porter Award, Kathryn’s writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, The Atlas Review’s Non-Fiction Chapbook award and Overland’s Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize. A former writer/artist in various residences, Kathryn holds a PhD for studies in narrative ethnography and edits non-fiction and travel writing for Australian creative arts journal Verity La.

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