Volcanic fed

She comes on too strong. Sacrifice
dear ones to placate the mephitic
breath of the goddess. [Anna] Magnani
idols offered-up to an animal pulse
hustling amongst the slave class.
I carusi buckle under and wombs
bag-up hellfire. Bare-bottomed mules
moil for brimstone, too cavernous
to keep in olives and bread. Boom
then bust! She’s in your face
full-bodied, we climb her slopes
over-equipped and photograph
our risk-take. She’s public space;
the slip-slide of a rock-fall and women
who smoulder.

*I Carusi is Sicilian dialect for six-year-old boys once indentured to work in the Sulphur mines.

**

Hodge

Tess busied sprinkling linen lighting tallow leading the cart before the horse directed fate rising before dawn walked miles and miles haymaking harvesting milking butter-making hoped extinguished young supervis[ed] fowl purvey[ed] fowl nurse[d] fowl surgeon[ed] fowl [be]friend[ed] fowl and whistled to fowl lugged baskets taking stock reaching village after village binding corn drawing reeds patting cotton bring more pastoral chores stooping to gather garlic moves bovine-like gathering Sorrow pushing to pay meet red tyrant holding baskets brings bacon kneels to tie boots ties sheaves beating sunrise unfastened shirt suckling Sorrow fastened shirt stooped low drawing reeds completed work into the night tying sheaves staying to work-on plucking feathers cramming geese making hay started working squirting milk pressing udders buried Sorrow cool cream running cream cut-off fat took stock held tools began working cutting ears service[d] farms broke back trudged in boots set to work young hacking hay drawing reeds trudged on pulled out tools carried bundles seizing days crawing hay gathering sheaves cutting ears resumed work walked miles and miles standing on feet chopping-off ears throwing bundles slaved all day sweded grubbing swede-trimming sliced swedes storing swedes untie sheaves untie sheaves untying sheaves untying sheaves kept going laboured long never stirred from sorrow

*all verbs are taken from Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy referencing Tess’s work activities.

 **

Yes-Go-Zone

In my hand………… a power tool−
tooth cutter……………… …. their wool cheek
pressed  unwillingly……….my calf
segregating the boys………over class
as tuff as ewes.
Now mine……………this ram
this Tom Robert’s icon
in grease and down………..I think I can
compete.……….This gun…………..in flow
outdo Jack with Jill’s technique.
Beside me a woman tests her hand
at “Sheep O”;  rough riding
she sports……………… …… a wifebeater
throwing…………………. …. the wool
to roustabouts in one piece.
Up her game….she reaps the peak-rate.
This tackle…….contests her mettle
of body…………for proof
all youth is able.
Out of her mouth
she cracks……..up
as wool yolk
as she back-bends
to unlock her spine
of burrs.

*after ‘Amanuensis’ by Jean Kent, and the documentary ‘Visible Farmer’.

** 

Ligurian brined

That summer we spent moonraking
thermoclastic streets
…………in your blue Renault
……………… …. daylight existed, only to shoo
noontide oestrus
…………beneath linen.
That silver belly chain linked
……………… …. ………..our two hemispheres
an inability to roll my r’s
…………the way you inhabited fluency
with a curled tongue. ……………… …. We dived in
midnight blue
……………… …. trailing strands of bioluminescence
I wrung out and cast to the Mistral
……………… …. siren seduced; you threw your wreck
…………,across graffitied rocks and fished
……………… …. ……………… …………. belly split
fingertip filled; rosmarino oiled
………….and charred.

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Lisa Collyer is the author of two poetry collections, Gold Digger (2025) and How To Order Eggs Sunny Side Up (2023) (the latter being short-listed for The Dorothy Hewett Award), and both published with Life Before Man Books. Her personal essay, Prolonged Exposure is published in the anthology, Women of a Certain Courage (2025) with Fremantle Press. Her poem, ‘The Grape Pickers’ was short-listed for the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize (2025). She was a recent artist in residence at Bundanon Art Museum (2025) where she created new work on climate grief.