by Ian C SMith
He duels with a young editor.
The prize? His prose.
Sixty-six-word sentences,
anathema to those fresh-
baked from creative writing courses,
his lateral palaver, reliant
on commas like roadside poppies
- horizon-glimpse of hyphens, dashes –
asterisks starbursting across heaven’s drum
(brackets enclaving sly word hoardings)
inverted commas ‘skylarking’,
jokes like footnotes,
divert, keeping his light burning,
these sentences, axiomatic, epigrammatic,
avenues of his life
which he would paraphrase, extend,
postponing the heart-piercing full stop.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Ian C Smith’s work has appeared in The Best Australian Poetry, Descant, Island, Magma, The Malahat Review, Southerly, & Westerly His latest book is Lost Language of the Heart, Ginninderra (Adelaide). He lives in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria, Australia.
Last updated June 04, 2011