New on Poetry

Bombing of Poems Opening Program Hardop!

Poem

Merlinda Bobis

Side by side

Original language

DETAINEE

DETAINEE

DETAINEE

how easily a speck of bird
shatters the evenness of skies—

she peers, stunned, from cell 22

that such dumb minuteness
can shake the earth

© 1998, Merlinda Bobis
From: Summer was a fast train without terminals
Publisher: Spinifex, North Melbourne

Merlinda Bobis

Merlinda Bobis

(Philippines, 1959)

Filipino-Australian writer Merlinda Bobis has published in three languages (English, Pilipino, Bikol) across multiple genres. Her novels, short story and poetry books, and plays have received various awards, including the Prix Italia, the Steele Rudd Award for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories, the Philippine National Book Award, and the Australian Writers’ Guild Award.
...

Countries

Discover other poems and poets from Australia

Poems Poets

Languages

Discover other poems and poets in English

Poems Poets

Poems

Poems of Merlinda Bobis

IN A ROOM TO LET

GOING ETHNIC

WORD GIFTS FOR AN AUSTRALIAN CRITIC

HOMECOMING

THIS IS WHERE IT BEGINS

POLITICS

Driving to Katoomba

IN BED WITH LORCA

DETAINEE

SIESTA

Close

DETAINEE

how easily a speck of bird
shatters the evenness of skies—

she peers, stunned, from cell 22

that such dumb minuteness
can shake the earth

From: Summer was a fast train without terminals

DETAINEE

Sponsors