That's the biggest mall, or indeed the only mall, in Bern there

...with a budget hotel in front, and high density housing just behind, and then... COUNTRYSIDE. (26.6.20

Consolation and its discontents: Belinda Rule

Consolation and its discontents

What is the peculiar

      consolation of a sky


like a violet lamp


above a crunched-foil sea?


Meanwhile, your mother


does not love you.


Still, there are the black


strokes of the trees


and the toy car lights

      on the rim of the bay.


In the sand, an eagle has lain down


and died, feather bunting


on a barn of bones,


wings still outstretched, as if


life ended

      still in flight.

Meanjin Winter
2019