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Warrick Wynne
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the poet
With three published books to his name, Australian poet Warrick Wynne has had his poetry featured in various Australian and international magazines and journals, including Walleah Press and Varuna, The Writers House Blog. Warrick lives and writes on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne. His most recent collection is The State of the Rivers and Streams.
the poems
Hands
Level 3 is 'Hands':
the swathed palm,
the unhinged fist,
the fingers fractured
black or twisted,
suspended in slings
wrapped in gauze.
We all face each other
mute as moons.
This is what happens
when pressure is applied
against the grain,
this is the flaw
in the great architecture
what a piece of work ...
how easy it is to break
this hold we have on things,
we can hardly grasp it.
Spider Crab
Above the Victorian Fish poster,
(vivid illustrations of the edible denizens of the deep)
a white spider crab mounted on a wooden board
pinned to the wall as it was in my childhood.
I mean, this exact crab, legs now blackening with age
was in a (different) fish and chip shop of my youth,
brought here, no doubt, with the goods and chattels
from some former enterprise, and I recognise it:
one giant claw open wide to snap,
the other retracted shy, evasive
punch and counter-punch.
At Hector's Seafood now, the staff wear light blue tops
emblazoned with a yellow marlin
rising from a vividly tropical sea.
I wait for my flake below fading ivory claws,
one outrageously enlarged,
one curled inward gently
like an invitation,
or an imploring gesture to the past.
At the edge
For Harriet
We walk to the edge of the bay
drawn, it seems, to this great dish
where you played and swam
and now, stand here, with your own baby
strapped to you.
Could anything be stranger?
the three of us beside the sea,
the submerged beach where you played
a stone wall, the city in the distance
whatever next?
Publishing credits
Hands: The Best Australian Poems 2013 (Black Inc.)
Spider Crab: exclusive first publication by iamb
At the edge: Love the Words Anthology 2022 (Infinity Books)
