Live Encounters Poetry & Writing April 2025
Swiss Italian Sunday, poem by Michael J Leach.
Swiss Italian Sunday
The afternoon after
my cousin’s Italian wedding in the city,
my partner and I decide to stop off
at the near-full, dirt parking lot
of a farmstead attraction
that sits (un)comfortably amidst hills.
To our surprise, a sign says we’re here
during this year’s Swiss Italian Festa.
We step onto a field then buy tix
at a booth, likening the experience
to attending music festivals.
The lilt of the Schwyz accordion
swells as we near stone structures—buildings
whose walls call to mind patchwork doonas
hanging from Hills hoists on a calm day.
The sounds of folk songs complement
the fragrances of flowers & food
the sights of people & flags
the feel of held hands
the tastes of rural Europe
our daydreams of forebears.
Lit by spring sun past its zenith,
my partner proposes a toast to yesterday
& today. We clink glasses of limoncello spritz—
the hair of the Highland cattle.
© Michael J Leach
Michael J Leach lives and works on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung Country in his birthplace of Bendigo. Michael’s poems have appeared in journals such as Cordite Poetry Review, anthologies such as The Best Australian Science Writing 2024 (NewSouth Publishing, 2024), and his three poetry books: Chronicity (MPU, 2020), Natural Philosophies (RWP, 2022), and Rural Ecologies (ICOE Press, 2024). A fourth poetry book, Chords in the Soundscapes, is forthcoming from Ginninderra Press. Michael’s poems have been recognised in competitions: first place in the UniSA Mental Health and Wellbeing Poetry Competition 2015, commended in the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine 2021, joint first place in the poetry category of the MSB Confidence Writing Competition 2022, longlisted for the poetry category of the MSB Confidence Writing Competition 2023, shortlisted for the poetry category of the Woollahra Digital Literary Award 2023, highly commended in and longlisted for the Liquid Amber Poetry Prize 2024, longlisted for the University of Canberra Health Poetry Prize 2024, and highly commended in the Hush Foundation Kindness in Healthcare Writing Prize 2024.