antipodes.
the australian mainland
is the largest landmass with its antipodes
entirely in ocean
what it would be like
to find no such shore
on the other side of everything
(of yourself)
i have straddled the pacific
across hemispheres
learned nothing of the north atlantic coldness that sits
so opposite the heat of my childhood.
antipodal.
but know now that if i could have tunnelled down
to the bottom of that place
(of myself)
i’d have found nothing but water rushing in.
Originally from Western Sydney, Melissa Swann currently publishes books in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Their work has appeared in Mantissa Poetry Review and live at Word in Hand, Subbed In, and THE PLOT.
swim meet lit mag 