joanne burns is a Sydney writer, whose most recent book of poetry is

'footnotes of a hammock'  Five Islands Press 2004. She is finalising a new

poetry collection 'an illustrated history of dairies'.

bug

take it from here: the sky

and its rattles just amnesia's

litter the three day order

waiting above the cook top

essential ingredients lost

to the pen's failing muscle:

negotiations for an egg cup

of freshly squeezed ink never

seem to accelerate beyond

accidental squander

how many mistook the pedestrian

button for a peppermint tic tac

it's no longer chi chi to count

[first published in Cordite]