ROBBIE COBURN is a poet based in Melbourne, Australia. His verse novel The Foal in the Wire will be published by Hachette Australia in 2025 and his most recent poetry collection is Ghost Poetry (Upswell, 2024). His website is robbiecoburn.com
Eros, Fragile and Precious Animals
Drear heavensong, trumpeting endlessly
and everything masked by eventide,
black membrane, shadowed skin filmed
across my eyes before the mind’s gloaming.
your suffering will always be a flood.
when I am writing to you, Hare, I think
of the way your feet cross in your sleep
resembling those of a suspended rabbit.
hours eaten away, parted lips
of your unfastened and breathing mouth
like the beak of a dead sparrow on its back
moved by the wind.
when I unknowingly woke
to Craw’s bleating call, I answered,
spurning the deluge and not considering
the passerine chamber’s weight.
I left you there sleeping,
your framework turning suddenly onto
its breast in the darkness, as if commanded,
concealing your heart from mine.
ROBBIE COBURN is a poet based in Melbourne, Australia. His verse novel The Foal in the Wire will be published by Hachette Australia in 2025 and his most recent poetry collection is Ghost Poetry (Upswell, 2024). His website is robbiecoburn.com