Almanac Poetry: Such is Life
The Kelly gang dancing with hostages at the siege of Glenrowan, June 1880. (Ned Kelly, it seems clear, is the tallest armed figure.) Illustration, pen and ink; 13.8 x 21.7 cm.
1880, National Library of Australia. By George Gordon MacCrae. [Wikimedia Commons.]
Such is Life
Last night I dreamt
I shot Ned Kelly
in the back.
He’d surrendered,
was compliant.
I didn’t think he’d run.
But then he made a sudden move,
a last-ditch effort
to disappear.
Without thinking,
I pulled the trigger
– a groan,
then that tall,
surprisingly slender,
athletic, bearded man
dropped to the ground with a thud.
The chase had been long.
And the law had been on my side.
I was too tired to feel much.
But I wish the bastard hadn’t run.
I’d started to like him.
Goodbye, Ned.
(Then I awoke, and fell
into another dream.)
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, which was published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Intriguing Kevin.
Like the subject.
Thanks.
Thanks, Dips.
Dreams are often like that – intriguing – and I find Ned endlessly fascinating, for reasons i can’t totally articulate.