'A Day In The Life': published in Undercover of Lightness (page 50), March 2012.
Andrew Burke is an Australian poet who has published eleven books of poetry. He has written on a daily basis - stories, plays, poems and - to feed family - advertising material and videos, annual reports and press releases. From 1990, Burke taught creative writing and allied subjects at universities, TAFE colleges and writing centres. In 2006/07, he and his wife Jeanette travelled to China where they taught at Shanxi Normal University, and, on their return, they taught indigenous children at Wanalirri Catholic School in The Kimberley area of North West Australia. He now dedicates life fulltime to writing.
Other poems from Undercover of Lightness:
Andrew Burke blogs at Hi Spirits
My chest clenches
and I fumble in my pocket
for the Nitrolingual spray.
I’m walking
my damaged heart and dog
through tall gums.
You can watch so much
television, you can nap
just so many hours
then you itch
to do things, simple things
like stretch your legs
and walk.
I stand under a tree
to catch its breath.
A Nitrolingual mist
is working its way
through dank slums
to open the way ahead.
Zimmy sits at my feet, tongue
hanging like
a flag at half mast.
‘Come on,’ I say,
‘let’s go.’