Blue Bottle Journal
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Masthead
  • Press
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Masthead
  • Press

Blue Bottle Journal
poetry with sting

Summer Air

18/3/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
by Michael J. Leach and Rachel Rayner 

A summer smog clouds
warm air, enshrouding landmarks.
Fog lights brighten streets.
 
Particles are so dark
they redden the Sun’s precise glare

on cracked concrete paths
walked by breathers of smoke
blown in from the bush,
 
from the disintegrating
leaves and the combusting bark.
 
Erupting infernos
of hot colours roar, feeding
on families and homes
 
that spark and collapse into
a void, scorched with loss.
 
Winged seeds rise
from within flaming gum trees
to fly through thick air
 
and soon land on damp soils
where life grows, greening, skyward.

Michael J. Leach is an emerging poet and academic at Monash University School of Rural Health. Michael’s poems have appeared in Cordite, Rabbit, Meniscus, Haiku Journal, Jalmurra, Plumwood Mountain, and elsewhere, including his chapbook Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020). He lives on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung country in Bendigo, Victoria.
 
Rachel Rayner is a science communicator who has shared a love of science and language with audiences all over the world, presenting science poetry at the South African National Arts Festival and the Australian Science Communicators Conference. Rachel has had her own and co-authored poems published in various online journals. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Blue Bottle

    Seeking words with sizzle, poetry that wraps us in burning ribbons and won't let go. Send us your best!

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    October 2024
    September 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photo from John Donges