POETRY
      jenny boult — 'leaving adelaide'

we tell two people that we're booked
on the evening train & the afternoon ferry
they both say "well bugger off then"
we look at each other
"no regrets"
pack the car & organise the dog's flight

the house that was once a haven
has made me     a phoenix
armed robbers shot us down & we rose
from the flames

we have no business here anymore
too social & too solitary
too scared to answer the door
we soared there

& now we're leaving the precarious nest
to get a life
"no regrets"

      jenny boult — 'straight'

1.
at the bus stop tim passes a joint
to a junkie with dirty hair
worn out shoes & a face that might
bring traffic to a standstill

he nods at me      "this is my wife
she's clean"         & i am. drug-free
madam junk tries to smile
days old make-up cracks but her face
doesn't

time was I knew a lot of people who
looked like that once upon a needle
& a handful of pills

2.
coming down/ that bloody tidal wave
rips & dumps you with dismembered bodies
& dogscream. you drown in russet spume
it's real this dream that clings when
sleep ends driving you from a sodden bed
into cold corridors
the land of never rest

& then you bin the benzos
ride that storm

3.
straight isn't easy
but you think about the half-life
& the funerals
you want to be better off
not            dead