Katherine Samuelowicz: How Is She I Wonder

.

travelling to work on the dew-washed morning by bus on the route I never take by car I recognise this house now comfortably nesting among grownup trees lush green feeding on the recent rains fitting so well into the neighbourhood that grew around it

.

how is she

I wonder

this other me

living with my ex-husband

in this house we never bought

.

by Katherine Samuelowicz

Brisbane, Qld., Australia

Katherine Samuelowicz: STEP BY STEP

this is my new beautiful neighbourhood hilly with roads that follow the contour of the land that climb descend and scramble down to the water roads lined with old trees with their leaves now yellow and yellowish-brown and red brittle under my feet or swirling in the air in their descent to the ground forming mounds against curbs and marking parking spaces houses cascading down to the Harbour more and more visible through trees now denuded of leaves old well-established houses at ease with the landscape neglected ones like well-aged women once beautiful graceful and desired once restored to their original beauty show their age now turned into memories of time past from the paved spine of the hills steps leading to the wharfs lookouts parks children’s playgrounds into the bays of the Harbour blue grey misty cloudy clear

step by step
I take possession
of my new neighbourhood
and find in your absence
your constant presence
.

.

by Katherine Samuelowicz
Brisbane, Qld., Australia

Katherine Samuelowicz: MOROCCO MAY 2004

high from a house roof in the kasbah i look at snow covered mountains at a fertile green oasis neatly separated with a clean chirurgical cut from yellowy brown desert at kapusta cabbage heads in neat rows among date palms

in Chellah on Roman columns nasze bociany Polish storks and nasze malwy our hollyhocks against façades of palaces with their intricate carved wood stucco and tilework i nasze przydrozne maki and our red poppies among graves of rulers long dead

in Zagora where a road sign proclaims 52 days to Timbuktu (by camel) a flock of girls runs from school freshly starched school uniforms bright smiling eyes hair in plaits laughing wanting to know where we’re from asking for bonbons

i think about my father
my hair in long plaits
walking together
through a pine forest
all things i was to be

silence all eyes on images from Abu Ghraib prison on the TV screen mint tea and coffee getting cold in my mind’s eye i see a sunny day in Brisbane among thousands of people

a young girl
in a wheelchair
walking for peace

by Katherine Samuelowicz

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

first published in Yellow Moon 16, Summer 2004

Katherine Samuelowicz: MEETING YOU

a blue winter warsaw sky ice crystal stretched like a drum stretched like a bow ready to let the arrow fly stretched to the breaking point stretched to the point that a high sound would shatter it pieces would scatter everywhere and maybe a white light will explode like when you make love and it’s good most of the time love making is a pretty pedestrian affair but sometimes it’s good and white light explodes at the back of your brain and keeps exploding and exploding and your whole being shatters into millions billions of pieces pieces breaking and breaking and yet in each of them there is a whole of you and all you’ve got is someone’s arms to hold you together

years later
i miss myself
as i was with you

by Katherine Samuelowicz

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

first published in Yellow Moon 19, Winter 2006

Katherine Samuelowicz: HIS GRANDMA'S ORANGE

admiring roses
given to me
on my birthday
my mother
can’t recall my name

it’s time to leave to go to the airport I come to my mum saying “mamo, I have to go now, I’m going home, I’ll come back soon, keep well” I kiss her. she sits still, not moving, on the sofa. I walk towards the door. I turn back, come back to her, hug her again she doesn’t hug me back but she is not resisting either. I say again “mamo, I have to go now, I’ll be back soon, see you soon” I put my arms around her, I kiss her. no reaction, again I pick up my bag and start walking towards the door. and again I can’t leave like that without getting some response from her, I keep returning to her, my sister turns away tears in her eyes. I give up after yet another try and then when I’m almost at the door picking up an orange from the bowl of fruits on the table my mum says “take this for Oli”. tears in my eyes I take the orange, put it in my pocket. Brisbane airport

Oli’s arms around me
in quarantine bin
his grandma’s orange

by Katherine Samuelowicz

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Katherine Samuelowicz: NUDE

clothes discarded one by one only an amber necklace earrings a few rings a bangle left

his hands
on my breast
searching for death

by Katherine Samuelowicz

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia