Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Lizz Murphy — Poem 151: In the frame (with Sarah)


In response to Sarah St Vincent Welch's With Lizz



IN THE FRAME (WITH SARAH)

A long awaited coffee
splash of red framed by orange
Old time’s sake
precious writing mornings
What colour were the 90s

A scarlet man on his smart phone
The memory of a raptor’s hindquarter
framed in my car window
A hawk like torn tan bark
its catch limp-winged
The reflection of the barista

In the corner a chuckly breast-fed baby
Sarah is laughing I am laughing
her eyes searching out a poem
poking it into her phone
She thinks I’m writing about testicles
(honestly – they were kestrels)
Note to self: improve handwriting

She is serious now
hair hooked back
Concentration
The tangerine saucers walk me again
through 70s suburbs
Orange is a happy colour we agree
but I still hate those orange curtains

11 comments:

  1. I really love that you wrote these in real live conversation with each other. Both poems reflect the strength and endurance of your friendship which is a wonderful thing to capture. And I really enjoyed the testicles / kestrel mix up....

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  2. I'm loving the combination of kestrels and testicles. Next word manacles?

    The nineties were grey, I think.

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  3. Delicious poem. As I was just saying to Sarah, you have (together!) inspired me to seek out a friend to write in cafés with, a thing I used to do a long time ago with Jennie Fraine and Leah Kaminsky, when we all lived in Melbourne.

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  4. Thanks all for comments and welcome Lisa, Penelope and Rosemary. Sarah and I used to meet at Peppers in Canberra every Thursday morning before work. We were joined by Nina Kavunenko and became Three Women and a Cello for some time. They were special times.

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  5. Thank you, Lizz and Sarah. Made me laugh, and well, just feel good..

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  6. Yes! To you and Sarah, yes to seeking out friends to create with or share creative output with. Yes to rediscovering creating in cafes - I will paint a cafe tabletop this weekend!

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  7. Oh lucky cafe tabletop Michaela! As for me I'm quite a regular cafe writer - started on buses, migrated to cafes :)

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  8. Thank you Efi - so glad you got a laugh as well. It really was a fun morning.

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  9. I have to say Sarah upped the anti big time. I was going to be lazy and post my initial scratch but then I saw Sarah's terrific piece and thought I'd better make an extra effort :)

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