Written piece
quilting
Pat Saunders
Australia
About this piece
A queer woman's restless night, caught between the dogs of war and asylum. Fragments of desire surface across a lifetime — a gallery opening, an older academic, a bookish colleague, the girl next door, a teenage best friend — assembling into the patchwork the poem takes as its quilt.
she falls into a dark deep desolate slumber regretful stains on the ceiling watch her turn and toss haunting her helpless hapless body’s feeble attempts at escape. sweat slipping sliding plummeting gliding washes sun bleached skin drowns airless lungs grasps stolen moments dancing between the dogs of war and asylum tethered freedom. the artsy free spirit at the gallery opening unashamedly peachy keen her mouth opens the older academic flirty with her cute talk her eyelids flutter the bookish colleague’s lunch invite her toes twitch the chubby girl next door fingers curl the teenage best friend their only fight elbow extends the librarian with squeaky shoes ankle cracks floating fragments of light fleeting flailing elusive a patchwork; pearls of the sea swept inevitably aside by tides of life.