Irina Frolova – Wild Fennel

Profile Frolova LEP&W ANZ May 2021

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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing May 2021
Special edition featuring poets from Australia & New Zealand.

Irina Frolova is a Russian-Australian poet who lives on the Awabakal land with her three children and two fur babies. Irina has a degree in philology from Moscow City Pedagogical university, and she is currently studying psychology at Deakin University. Her work has appeared in Not Very Quiet, Australian Poetry Collaboration, Baby Teeth Journal, Rochford Street Review, The Blue Nib, and The Australian Multilingual Writing Project, as well as various anthologies. Irina’s poetry speaks to the experience of immigration and a search for belonging. It draws on folklore and explores archetypes through cultural and feminist lenses. Her first collection of poetry Far and Wild was released by Flying Island Books in January, 2021.You can find Irina on Instagram @far_and_wild_poetry or on Facebook @irinafrolovapoet.


wild fennel

the sky    engorged
with milky blues and greys
air thick with wild
sweetness

yellow heads launch
into the night   like
fireworks   burst
with fragrance
with abandon

and for a moment
I taste it
the fennel tea brewed
in my nanna’s porcelain cup
a tiny russian kitchen
a childhood ago
she says it’s good for my supply

a newborn mother   wide-eyed
no longer telling
night from day   I drink
blurred senses
splash at the brim


© Irina Frolova