“Here are the ashes. / The days are beautiful.”
—Ann Lauterbach
All being said, the fathers of my wild hypothesis
live near that dandelion clock fountain.
All clean now: even the station beggars have PayID
and the strip clubs close before the sushi train.
On the second floor of an Art Deco apartment
a ripped boyman scatters seeds for his friends.
We watch as the lorikeets linger at his window
as though there’s more to be said.
All done now: the man sprawled outside St Vincent’s
track marks like red braille screaming,
the working girls, having unionised, take time
in lieu, watching the koi fish swim upstream –
in the park where the syringes once scored the soil
and cherry blossoms now scatter spring confetti.
And the days are beautiful. The men can love men
now and the beatings happen elsewhere.
Myfanwy Williams is a queer Filipino-Welsh writer living in Sydney, Australia. She was nominated for the 2024 and 2026 Pushcart Prizes, and her writing has been published by Burningword Literary Journal, Jarnal, Panorama Journal of Travel and Place, Crow and Crosskeys, Clarion Poetry, The Madrigal, Querencia Press and others.
