Poem For Australia

by Emaline Delapaix

your tasty beams
salty, sweat framed faces
bleeding into me
collapsing under my weight

delighting in the silky dust
dry bones rub lustfully under my feet
I dream of you, I long for you
how could I have lost you?

I grew in another's customs
but I didn't forget you
will you let me come home again?
I have so much to show you

you will remind me again
of the beauty

torn edges
rusty colours
and that dry wit
no comparisons can be made
we are all so Australian

the waves lap at my memories
but my love for you is strong
like the banksia brush
that will s c r a t c h
my soft forgetful skin in December

leave me for now
my antipodean dreaming
as I try to make friends
in this concrete jungle of forgotten kindness
seeds for growing
and the fast food life.

The Author

Emaline Delapaix is a Toronto-based Australian singer-songwriter-photographer-poet. She is fascinated with mortality and the human body, and her first collection of photos/poetry ever shown to the public included "Strip" and "Making Friends With The Bathroom Mirror" as part of Toronto Pride's ARTWHERK! in 2005. emalinedelapaix.com.