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Robbie Coburn 7 Poems

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May 1

Horsesong

Every afternoon it happens —

I see a horse standing in a paddock
in the rain
outside my window
not knowing why it is standing there

the bones of animals buried
beneath its hooves.

one day soon it will happen.

it will rain endlessly
and I will not be here.

Blood Ritual

"I saved the pieces of you
when you fell apart".

the deepening puncture
of my fingers against paper,
writing.

I closed my eyes and it was there;

a horse I will never see again.
blackened trees fallen in a burning paddock.
knife wounds running with blood
viewed through broken glass.

beyond all distance
it was there again;

same night; pain
and the right hand rising
and gripping the left wrist
as if holding the body of a child.

I know this time it will be endless.

the inconceivable weight
of a book bound in flesh.

Alcoholism

And to choose to never
leave you

and return unchanged.

the night deepening, in the instant
of colliding with the ruin of your mouth.

your skin feels like sleep
surrounding my body forever;

I want to stay with you here,
where you love my blood
as I have never known

and you are always mine.
a safety in the longing
written in your name
and suffocating my breath.

I was born in your arms.

Dream of Human Sacrifice

A dream of leaving;
the piercing scream
of a fired bullet
parting dark water.

suddenly I was a child
running a razorblade
across my arm;
frightened by the blood

and mesmerised by the trail
it left on the surface
of my skin

as if the scar was drawn
by an unknown hand
and would not follow.

not knowing I would live
inside those wounds
as if they were shelters
welcoming me,
saying

you can create a new life
and abandon your past.

no more nightmares.
no more ghosts.
no more poems.

just you here alone,
always writing the end of a story.

Knife Diary

I woke again and heard the rain;
heavy air dissolving into two mouths,
unspeaking.

I asked myself if my body was enough
to leave behind.

blood on the branches of a pine tree
against the darkened window

where I am here alone
making a space for you.

Rape

You live in every part of me;

a waking dream of you
entering my flesh
and becoming a wound.

I wish you had told me then
that you would never leave me alone

and there was no way to drown you.

that you would lay with me
each night as I slept,

everybody we know
and how we know them
decided by you.

I wish that I had died.

my body has changed;
I feel my bones shrinking
as I dream of your breath
against my skin.

everybody in this world
who loves me
takes a part of you.

yet you are endless,
reaching for me
and taking it back,
reminding me

I do not know myself
without the violence
of your hands.

it has been years
since we have touched

but I am still a child
that will always belong to you.

Love Song

And the empty streets filling with rain;
a presenceless form passing
beneath nameless buildings.

everything has a place
set for us.

unknown to you and known
before I can speak your name.
in the unbearable dawn
where I cannot touch you.

how often I have lived here alone.
somewhere

a transfiguring voice telling me
the names for our lives
and the meanings for the names.

it feels like you could be born again
and remember waking
for the first time.

I cradled your body in a dream.

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Robbie Coburn is a poet based in Melbourne, described by ArtsHub as 'one of Australia's most essential poets'. His verse novel, The Foal in the Wire, will be published by Hachette Australia in 2025. His poetry collections include Ghost Poetry (2024), And I Could Not Have Hurt You (2023), and The Other Flesh (2019), and he has published a number of chapbooks, including Before Bone and Viscera (Rochford Press, 2014). His poems have been published in Poetry, Meanjin, Island, Westerly, and elsewhere, and anthologised in books including Writing to the Wire (2016) and To End All Wars (2018). He has also run poetry workshops for youth mental health organisation headspace. Website: robbiecoburn.com