Expansion (Indigo Eli)

I reflect
upon
the convex meniscus
of homemade smoothie,
giddy.

I had to pour the last drops,
had to chance
emptying the jug
into the full glass.
In awe,

my lips waver
then suck
the bulge of sweet nectar.
I savour
the over-ripe success,

delightfully drunk,
having dared
expand
the capacity
of my cup.

Casserole (Paul Turley)

You should always have a few
in the freezer. They should be
in those glass dishes that can
take any amount of heat or cold.

They should have plenty of potato.
There’s nothing like potato
to fill up and warm a body.
Carrots too. You need to see clearly.

Not too much spice though,
there’s enough of that
and you never know who will
need to be gathered around.

When you need to, take
one out. Heat it up.
Wrap it in a towel and
carefully carry it around.

Unwrap it. Hold it up gleaming,
an offering to ward off the gods
of chaos, change and chance.

There’s no need to say much.
I’m sorry…
You’re probably not
thinking about food…

It’s just a casserole…
I’ll leave it on the table…
You need to eat though…
It’s good and warm now…

It will be good later too,
probably better…
I’ll just leave it here…
if there’s anything…

Editor’s note: Given purely on the basis of his own physics knowledge, or lack of it at school – a convex meniscus, as opposed to a concave one, occurs when the particles of a fluid have a stronger attraction to each other than to the sides of the container that the fluid is in.

Indigo Eli is a poet, artist and performer from South Australia. She is a three-time Australian Poetry Slam national finalist and co-founder of Spoken Word SA. Her poems have been published in journals and anthologies, including ‘Cordite’, ‘Australian Poetry Journal’ and ‘Writ Poetry Review’. She likes strong coffee, fluffy clouds… and smoothies. More about Indigo and her work can be found here.

Paul Turley was born in Wales and mostly raised in Adelaide, where he now lives again after a number of years in Europe and the US. A Master of Philosophy graduate from the Department of English and Creative Writing at Adelaide University, and initiator of the inclusion of poetry readings at the McLaren Vale Serafino Wines 2014 Gorgeous Festival, he writes poetry, in part, “to make him pay attention to the little bits of life”.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.