13 May 2025
14 May 2025
submitted for Best of Australian Poems 2025 17 June 2025
the psychiatrist’s skirt
the psychiatrist’s skirt, above the knee, an externality but
flared black and white stripes with high waist
accentuate her stalked walk her sashayed smile i have
confidence in this woman who speaks four languages
and one more with her skirt – but wait, you say, what’s
this got to do with the matter at hand, your obsession
with the deeply hidden view?
isn’t that what you’re here for? yeah?
the deeply hidden you, more like, you blurt
but the skirt says it all (oh and the swift legs,
the tock tock on the fake wood floor,
the human receptionist so kind, awoke)
and the bill to pay
yes they’re vertical stripes
for most of the day