From the Continuum

Shattered glass skies
a flock of mute nightingales
fly in the darkness.
A colorless rainbow falls
bleaches the black earth
Grains of grit beat stoccatto
on a roof parched for eons
Sepia slaves stumble aimlessly
indistinguishable from their landscape
but for the egg-whiteness of their eyes
wide open in fear.

(C) v.coady 2006

WAITING

You were there
when the clock on the wall
spoke the time
the steam from the kettle
filled the room,
and fresh new dough
rested on the hob.

You were there
when the summer sun
painted shadows on our landscape,
through the Autumn gales
and glolden sunsets,
till the winter winds
scoured the trees
and left us nothing
but bone-bare branches.

In an empty bed I'll lie
clutching at fragments
of tattered canvas,
till the clock on the wall
speaks the time once more
and you will be there
waiting.

(c) v.coady 2006

I hate people who trash books. You know the ones who dog-ear pages and spill coffee etc. My books are my treasures and a new unread book is even more precious. Imagine my distress when I find that Henry has slimed,slobbered and chewed my brand new copy of "Skins" by Sarah Hay.
Now Henry has a penchant for chicken legs, you know, the squeaky plastic ones you can buy for 90 cents from The Warehouse and often brings them onto my bed, to chew while I am reading. For about ten minutes I could hear him making slobber and gnaw noises and took no notice until he thrust his rather large nose in my face with pieces of paper attached. To my horror I saw the above mentioned book gnawed into pieces the bits that still had text were slimed into a soggy papiemache. Henry on the other hand, seemed very confused by the bellow that issued forth, as he had been quite proud of his efforts. Needless to say he is in the dog house literally.

Ok so I'm going to have a rant. Catherine just asked me for the mark I got on the last assessment piece and do you think I could find it? No! I mean you think your doing the right thing cleaning up and tidying your desk etc but really in the long run it dosent pay. I had it on Friday and now it has vanished. Add to that, the fact that I have two thirteen year old ferals ,wrestling in the lounge room, the dog is having a nervous breakdown under the table and I think you could say that I'm having a very bad day. Valium if available would be great right now.
Gossip is, that someone had a hissy fit in class the other day, after taking offence at something someone wrote. I have a problem with that. I think if you are going to be that precious then perhaps you should not be in a writers course, where you are expected to expose yourself to some degree. The person who wrote the metaphoric piece did not intend any malice and tried to apologise when she realised the effect it had had. The tearful drama Queen refused to accept. How petty.

The first local FAW meeting, held yesterday at Rosedale, was a resounding success with there being more attendees than table and chair space. A rather interesting bunch, with more than a few familiar faces including Maureen, Leigh, Gloria and Elaine. It is quite surprising the amount of really good writers we have in the area. It has been decided that (if possible, ) the next meeting will be at Churchill, which will make it easier for some of us and possibly increase the number of attendees once again. I agree with Leigh that it will be nice just to be able to write, without it being an assessment piece or homework.

I was shocked though when Claire, the facilitator, announced after we had read our pieces, that anything read on the day was automatically classed as published as far as copyright goes. I wonder how that affects a manuscript that you want to submit to a comp for unpublished manuscripts? I wish she had mentioned it before I read the piece out of my YA novel.