All my life I have been scared of moths.
Afraid of them fluttering over my skin
pirouetting in my hair, all while I’m unaware
eyes shut to the world, vulnerable
The other night, I came home,
turned my bedroom light on
only to be greeted with the biggest moth
I have ever seen in my entire life
I was completely alone.
It was just me, and the moth.
It was about the size of a tennis ball
double the size of the moth I conquered
just over a year ago
and I thought that was the biggest moth
I had seen in my entire life
My initial instinct was to do what I usually do,
screech, run about the house like a girl.
I had no fly spray.
I had nothing but myself.
But this time I didn’t run.
I didn’t do anything.
I froze, nailed my eyes on the fucker.
I had never killed a moth without fly spray.
I always got other people to kill them for me.
Not this time.
I armed myself with a few towels, shoes,
whatever I could find,
I went over the plan in my head
the strategy to go in for the attack
retreat for the retaliation
then I armed myself
and began.
I threw a towel and retreated,
repeated again and again
but it wouldn’t die, no matter what I did
it kept fluttering around the light
prancing its existence, its fat, yellow body
it’s intrusive wings
and soon I ran out of towels, and shoes
so I had to go back in and retrieve my ammo
and I just kept throwing things
my aim was precise, a 95% hit rate
but still it would not die
and minutes went by, ten, fifteen, twenty
but I wouldn’t falter, I couldn’t falter
I was going to kill this fucker
I was going to show the IT
I was going to show this goddamn mother of a world
that I was not going to be defined by my fear
Finally, after an hour, it fell to the floor
unexpectedly, mid-flight, taking me by surprise…
I picked it up with a tissue, tossed it in the bin
DONE
Permalink
1 Comment
Hi there, happy new year and all the rest. It’s a new year and new beginnings for me and for my writing. The novel is out in the big wide world being read and decided upon by important literary people and in the meantime, poetry has been my focus. Also out in the big wide world being read is my first poetry collection, Love according to wogs, which, funnily enough, I am more proud of than the novel, Misplaced(it’s probably because Misplaced is my first-born)
A poem to begin the new year:
Here in the sand I draw the line
write across it my list of resolutions
another step in the so called journey
afraid to approach the storm ahead
or to turn back to the lines behind
so instead I stand…and brace…
The next few months are exciting with my first interstate gig in Perth at Perth poetry club on the 15th of Jan from 2-4pm at The Moon Cafe, 323 William Street, Northbridge. On Saturday Febuary 5th I will be doing a shared feature with Tender n Raw at The Dan O’Connell in Carlton, 225 Canning Street from 2-5pm. On Sunday the 27th of Feb at 6pm I will also be performing at the Cypriot wine festival with Luka Haralampou. The festival runs all weekend and includes Cypriot dancing, short films and cheap food and wine of course. $5 entry. Luka recently won the Melbourne Overload Poetry Fesitval Slam and was placed 19th out of 72 in the World Individual Poetry Slam in the USA. And in March, the Antithesis festival will feature shows of spoken word, film, music, theatre and more by local Greek-Australian artists and I will be performing with other poets and musicians at La Mama theatre(refer to the Antithesis website for details). Also Trial Kennedy, the band I studied for my first novel, Misplaced, are releasing their new album and touring in March. Very exciting! The Melbourne show will be at the Northcote social club on Saturday the 12th of March.
Hope everyone had a great new year.
Permalink
4 Comments
New Year, New gigs
January 1, 2011 at 9:06 am (Creative commentary, Poems (PG rated)) (antithesis festival, cypriot wine festival, la mamma, perth poetry club, Trial Kennedy)
Hi there, happy new year and all the rest. It’s a new year and new beginnings for me and for my writing. The novel is out in the big wide world being read and decided upon by important literary people and in the meantime, poetry has been my focus. Also out in the big wide world being read is my first poetry collection, Love according to wogs, which, funnily enough, I am more proud of than the novel, Misplaced(it’s probably because Misplaced is my first-born)
A poem to begin the new year:
Here in the sand I draw the line
write across it my list of resolutions
another step in the so called journey
afraid to approach the storm ahead
or to turn back to the lines behind
so instead I stand…and brace…
The next few months are exciting with my first interstate gig in Perth at Perth poetry club on the 15th of Jan from 2-4pm at The Moon Cafe, 323 William Street, Northbridge. On Saturday Febuary 5th I will be doing a shared feature with Tender n Raw at The Dan O’Connell in Carlton, 225 Canning Street from 2-5pm. On Sunday the 27th of Feb at 6pm I will also be performing at the Cypriot wine festival with Luka Haralampou. The festival runs all weekend and includes Cypriot dancing, short films and cheap food and wine of course. $5 entry. Luka recently won the Melbourne Overload Poetry Fesitval Slam and was placed 19th out of 72 in the World Individual Poetry Slam in the USA. And in March, the Antithesis festival will feature shows of spoken word, film, music, theatre and more by local Greek-Australian artists and I will be performing with other poets and musicians at La Mama theatre(refer to the Antithesis website for details). Also Trial Kennedy, the band I studied for my first novel, Misplaced, are releasing their new album and touring in March. Very exciting! The Melbourne show will be at the Northcote social club on Saturday the 12th of March.
Hope everyone had a great new year.
Permalink 4 Comments