Kalliste Hardy
bedtime story
we can speak with those mouths you carved us we are sorry
we have so much to sing our aria is respiration our aria
never ends a band of jays can stitch into sky the rooms of our
heart will remain a nest before sleep this prayer
we’re still learning we still foam at our mother’s
touch pink neck
nothing has changed we are colonizers by way of the paw
this prayer we teach esperance is it a kindness
to pass onto this world? or is it insouciance to
pretend we cannot see in the darkness below the bulrush
beneath the rabbit-thorns cannot hear the silence inevitable
as an arrow’s final whistle? just imagine a whiplash just
imagine it
Kalliste is a Greek-Australian writer living on unceded Gadigal Country, currently pursuing a Master of Creative Writing at the University of Sydney. Her work has been published in Voiceworks, miniMAG, Notch, Two Thirds North and more. She can be found on Instagram at @applebottomreads or on X (Twitter) at @umkalli.