Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Five November-December 2024
Salt, poems by Irina Frolova.
The Flautists of Green Point
the Awabakal land
the black-and-white charm
of Gymnorhina tibicen
ambushes me
the rush of wings and then
they burst
into a short run
and I do my best not to
burst into laughter
a flash of wild
mischief
heads cocked to the side
they welcome me
into the tribe
the conventicle
in the fields of Green Point
we swap seeds
for song
and feast
on the music
Note: Gymnorhina tibicen is a Latin term for the species of Australian magpie,
‘tibicen’ can be translated as ‘flautist’.
Salt
1.
I lie low in my living room re-learn the art of vulnerability
tell myself I am tidal lunar-like my energy levels
rise and retreat into the uncontainable
salt of self-reproof I let it dissolve on my tongue
raise my blood pressure up to ‘normal’
amid stillness and lack of productivity
a crescent of light claws its way through the thick
nothingness
2.
I wonder about time and focus
my attention maybe it’s not something I am short on
the black-and-white convictions of a to-do list
fade today
a rose outside my window turns
her young face towards the briny coastal sky
her swirling contours fill up with colour and
sweetness surging time-blind and sure
3.
November noon I walk through the bush breathless
humidity condenses between my temples
migraine is brewing the storm cloud’s mouth
looms over the shore swallows the sun
I shelter in the mangroves this saline woodland
a marvel of adaptation where
neither solely on land nor
at sea we make a life of it
© Irina Frolova
Irina Frolova is a Russian-Australian writer who lives on Awabakal Country. Irina’s creative highlights include her poetry collection Far and Wild (Flying Islands, 2021), the second prize in the 2021 Deborah Cass Prize for writing, and a longlisting in the 2023 University of Canberra VC International Poetry Prize. You can find her @irinafrolovapoet.