Maria Vouis had poems-of-the-month selected by Anthology Editors, Karl Cameron Jackson and Ros Schulz, for both April and August 2017! You can read them below:
Poem of the Month, April 2017
Sonnet for A Coin Eyed Fish
At the mouth of the Onkaparinga River.
In the mornings the new autumn cold
chews the crusts of fading summer,
The wind whines high through the empty hold
of the poo-bag roll in F # minor.
Midday birdsong is free light freight,
The dogs stalk and strain on the halter,
The sun sandwiched tight, early and late
sends trembling veins of light through water.
Through the violet dusk black swans abide,
Feeding from the river’s gilded face,
A hooked fish dies and its gold coin eye
counts the cost of sunlight erased,
It mouths its own wordless eulogy
to the river, flowing blind to sea.
Poem of the Month, August 2017
The Body Mother Made Me
The body mother made me
remembers her.
My lips, her smile stretched across sorrow
and one tooth lost with each child born.
The body she seeded for me
knows her.
Nine Greek moons to grow, twelve more to suck,
years to wean and teethe and cry.
These breasts she planted as buds
bloom for her,
flower in my veiled night movements,
swell at full moon with her secret musk.
These feet she fashioned for me
danced for her,
in her mountain village square,
stepped the map of her maiden soles.
The hands mother kneaded me
labour for her.
My hands pull wild greens, stir her pot,
my fingers light the lamp of the dead.
This voice she gifted me
keens for her,
Doric modes hummed into my breath,
ocean hymns of leaving but always coming home.
These eyes mother lent light to
look for her.
My eyes leak her tears now,
now that she is dissolved to bone.