Two Poems by Rebecca Dempsey

Momentum

With each carrion feed

more claw keen, surer of foot

each sunrise tests. Stretched sinews,

shuddering at the precipice

beak-beckoned by biting winds, unwinding

darkening wingtips ruffling in response.

A heartbeat through a hollow reed

of desire. New winged old wisdom

eyeing the prize. Then soaring,

loose limbed, long legged.

A shadow filling emptiness on instinct,

instantly up-drafted beyond the horizon.

Then diving, hunt tumbling

through feather ragged air.

The wedge tailed eagle becomes.

 

 

Statue to extinction

 

Born molten. Liquid poured

into the empty shell of itself,

becoming a raw impression

solidified. The beast sprang

from ore, heat and light,

Vulcanic blood boiling

into blackened metal. Caught cooled

in mid-stride, struck and paused.

Forever distanced, alone of its kind.

Un/herd. Hooves paw car-exhausted air.

Street sooted, marooned between roads,

unridden, this immobilised fossil, this thing

man-made, and on display for me,

(who alone in this city seems to notice)

asks, unironically, what have we wrought.

 

Rebecca Dempsey’s recent works are featured in Eclectica Magazine, The Ekphrastic Review, Gyroscope Review. Rebecca lives in Melbourne, Australia, and can be found at WritingBec.com.