2 Poems

The Christening of Time in Speech

finally as a gift we run out of exhales

who was I to dream of a bird trapped in my childhood

its life over

because it could not decipher the language of windows

language was the fall and before the fall

in the beginning we lay like corpses

mute in our shallow graves

who did we become

when we began to speak

when we were resurrected into language

what sweetness and savagery

were lost to the silence of memory

when the word fell

hard like an axe

Trophy

The poet crouches like a cat in the shadows,

then pounces on its helpless imagination,

bringing a poem proudly home,

dangling from its mouth.

Richard James Allen’s thirteenth book, Text Messages from the Universe (Flying Island Books, 2023), reflects a lifelong engagement with Buddhist and Yogic philosophies. A multi-award-winning poet, filmmaker, choreographer and performer, and an artistic director of The Physical TV Company, his work has been screened, published and performed widely across six continents. He lives in Sydney on unceded Gadigal lands. For further information: https://physicaltv.com.au/