Almanac Poetry: ‘Changeling’ – Robyn Black
Changeling
“…Parliament expresses our formal and sincere apology to the
mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who were profoundly harmed
by past adoption practices in Victoria.” – Parliamentary Apology
[by] Government of Victoria, Australia, 2012
My mother never knew my face
no touch of tiny fingers
counted toes or holding close
yet she felt me
insistently, I would have pushed
against soft membrane
fluttered, elbowed and booted
gently swelling against convention
maybe I announced myself with
hiccups and heartburn and a sadness
too empty to describe
if she had been allowed;
the succour of mouth and nipple
denied, how she must have cried
with only imagined imprint of
touch to scar empty palms
the years have now ticked
full lifetimes and yet
the mirror traps echoes,
each glance a question
A changeling, amorphous and unconnected
our shadows do not touch
I have no measure, nor memory
just these hands that I watch.
©Robyn Black
More poetry from Robyn can be read Here.
To purchase No Straight Lines click Here.
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About
Robyn Black is a poet, memoirist and short story writer who has twice won the Open Poetry section of the Joseph Furphy prize and then annually judged this section of the Award until it ceased in 2019. She is the co-ordinator of the new Furphy Literary Award ($15,000 1st Prize), an annual award which commenced in 2020. She also judges the Furphy Literary Award Youth Poetry section. Former president of the Goulburn Valley Writers Group Inc., she is also a former editor of Tamba Magazine and has been published in a number of literary magazines including Tamba, Ripples, The Wild Goose, Regime Books and The Australian Writer as well as on the Australia Poetry website. Robyn has enjoyed a varied experience in connecting locally with literary pursuits including being involved with the former Country Festival of Writing (which ran for 10 years in Shepparton); literary workshops; poetry sessions in local primary schools; joint ventures with local arts organisations; is an interviewer of writers at ‘author talk’ and literary panel events, including the 2023 Bendigo Writers Festival, and has several years involvement with the Shepparton Arts Festival ‘Breakfast with the Poets’. Robyn was also longlisted in the inaugural (2011) Montreal International Poetry Prize with her poem ‘boat talk’. She was short-listed in the 2016 and 2017 Alan Marshall Short Story Awards and the 2016 VU/Overland Short Story Award for Emerging Writers and has collaborative work exhibited at several local art spaces. She shortlisted in the 2024 Margaret Hazzard Short Story Award and gained a Special Commendation for her short story ‘Old Truths’ in the 2024 Scarlet Stiletto. Robyn is the Regional Ambassador – Goulburn Valley Region - for Writers Victoria. Her first collection of poetry - No Straight Lines published by Ginninderra Press - was released in October 2021.
A very heartfelt and moving poem, thank you for sharing Robyn.