Signs

By | 1 May 2015
(i)

On the old blue trampoline

beneath the apricot tree

the breeze is a blade

scraping my cheeks,

the dew-damp air

bites like snow

and glass falls through leaves

onto my eyelids.


(ii)

On the hospital bed

Dad reads from Strawberry Shortcake.

I relax against him,

twisting the plastic bracelet

circling my wrist.

His shapeless voice

vibrates through our sides.


(iii)

I pull the box from beneath

the antique dresser,

lift its lid, release

a delicious aura.

I gather sheaves of shiny letters

in my small hands,

shuffle and lay them out.

‘Mum! Can I do my words?’
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Jessica White was raised in country NSW and, at age 4, lost most of her hearing from meningitis. Undaunted, she made her way from a primary school of 100 pupils to publishing her first novel, A Curious Intimacy (Penguin, 2007) at age 29, and graduating with a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London. A Curious Intimacy won a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist award, was shortlisted for the Dobbie and Western Australia Premier’s awards, and longlisted for the international IMPAC award. It was followed by her second novel, Entitlement (Penguin, 2012). Her short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in numerous Australian literary journals, and she is the recipient of funding from Arts Queensland and the Australia Council for the Arts, which has included a residency at the BR Whiting Studio in Rome. Her short story, ‘Old Honey’, was recently shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

http://www.jessicawhite.com.au/

More by Jessica White on Cordite Poetry Review →

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