photo from Unsplash
Long Golden Light of Afternoon
Diffuse light moted with suspended skin flakes trailing from a desiccated scalp illuminates a toilet door The tinkle of the poker machines helps with urination stall door creaking trough redolent of Peerless Lavender refresher he sips at a chronic pint glass to ease wheezing Constipation softened unsuspended in amber he uncrumples his crossword quiet hagiography with half a hefty rump upon a stool and bends into the shape of a prone man upright long in thought in the long and golden light of the afternoon.
Scrolls
Spilt milk excites gunshot barks as spoodles skid on polished concrete fretting at the feet of pre-child couples who croon jejune as a boy thirteen discharges sweaty coins and streaks the counter with his coppery reflection small and slender puckered lips a tilde shoulder blades unknotting cinnamon … scroll baristas spray and swipe the change sunlight glares upon a paper bag his thirteen-year-old smile hung like a wire coat hanger swings wild as he backsteps on a spoodle barking banging awkward angled elbows poking packets of granola wobbling the eggs adult glances slide off him as he fades back into an ugly corner and scrolls Roger Patulny is a Sydney based academic, writer and poet, and is the Chief Editor for Authora Australis. He has published fiction in the The Suburban Review and poems in Cordite, Poets Corner InDaily, the arts magazine Dwell Time, The Rye Whisky Review, and Silver Birch Press.
Fevers of the Mind 