robbie coburn – 3 poems

Self-Mutilation in Animals 

I couldn’t tell when it began to rain 
or what the sky looked like before.
 
but it is endless now, 
and started somewhere 
in the past.
 
like the suicide note 
I have been writing 
for almost thirty years —

constantly revolving
the way the caged parrot 
senselessly pecks 

at its abdomen until
the wound covers its breast,

plucking at its own 
blood-soaked feathers 
as if it wished

to break free 
and attempt to take flight
just so it could fall.  


Genesis

They didn’t realise the knives 
would have other uses.

how the piles of unhoused bones 
were once assembled to make skeletons.

what happened when searching 
for the source of the drum in a wrist 
and not stopping at the skin.


Weltschmerz

Just before midnight 
it started to rain.

you were drunk 
but you heard the sound 
and walked outside 

and stood there, seeing 
the unwritten poem
encased in the wires 
falling against the road,

cars in the distance 
that could let you sleep
if you walk towards them.

walking and preparing 
for this to be your ending,
as the traffic stops
and the sirens approach.

all at once you would feel 
closer to the earth,
now that you are no longer 
a part of it.


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.
Twitter and Instagram: @robbiecoburn
Website: robbiecoburn.com


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