When murder
knocks on the door at night.
When home
is a ticking time-bomb
When despair
is all that is left to eat
Only fools
snatch their children from sleep,
secrete them on boats
in the dark
Only fools
leave homes still on fire
murdered loved ones unburied
Only fools heed the call of the border
like migrating birds
oblivious to borders
The true border
lies within the soul
halfway between courage
and extermination.
The call of the Border by John Bartlett | Sandalwood Poetry Reed Diffuser
John Bartlett is the author of three novels, short stories and nonfiction, as well as seven collections of poetry. He was the winner of the 2020 Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize and Highly Commended in the 2021 Mundaring Poetry Competition. He was longlisted in the 2022 & 2023 Liquid Amber Poetry Prize and also in the 2023 Geelong Library Poetry Prize, the Ros Spencer Poetry Prize and the Best Australian Yarn short story competition, 2023. Excitations of Entanglement, his second full collection was published in 2023 and his latest poetry pamphlet is In the Spaces between Stars lie Shadows.
