Rotor

Ann Shenfield

today the room is spinning

I stand up and try to steady myself

but it keeps spinning spinning

and I’m back on a ride

they call the rotor

in a vortex

with only my sister and nothing

to hold on to but the wall

we pressed ourselves against

in the background there were stories

of other children who’d come unstuck

those other children with their broken necks

and their other lives that we knew

were broken but not like ours

we protected ourselves by standing up

against the wall in the vortex

watching the floor fall from our feet

then later we’d laugh as if it was nothing

since we’d emerged unscathed

or as if we were unchanged

we held ourselves upright

and held on

and that ride went on and on

I’m wondering when it will stop

ANN SHENFIELD works across various media. Her animated films have received local and international honours including selection to the Berlin film festival. Her poetry has received numerous awards including the Judith Wright Poetry Prize. Her poetry book A Treatment (Upswell Publishing) was listed in The Age Best Books 2023.

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Four Omens in Three Days