detail

Joanne Burns

detail

 
 
wedged in the doorway at an angle. a man leaning to the right. arms stretched up against the jambs. a very large man. not a giant but memorably tall. the height of a doorway.  dressed in navy blue. boiler suit blue. large jaw. all this i noted briefly as i opened the door. he fell forwards onto the floor right away. i wasn’t sure whether to call the ambulance or the police but i knew it was serious, though i wasn’t nervous or particularly concerned. it seemed like something to remember when i woke up. i suppose it was what you might call a history lesson. i’m not sure whether i have failed or passed the subject. perhaps it’s just another of those parentheses.
 
 
 
 

Joanne Burns is a Sydney poet. She has had many books published since the early 1970s, many of which include prose poems/microfictions. Her latest book is brush (Giramondo Publishing, 2014). She has recently completed a new manuscript of poems, apparently. Examples of her work in the prose poem form can be seen, and heard, on The Poetry Foundation website.