Markings 80 - Cordite 84: Suburbia

Jeff Guess Car Park Crows

1 February 2018

Their eyes are steel sequins fixed with a dark tack gripping down on soft plastic handles of deserted supermarket trolleys.

Sitting out of chrome cages preying on what’s remained as rubbish, the gun-metal gaze waits for something to click.

They hold in their stare a whole expanse of black asphalt beneath which nothing pulses: dead earth. They will not shift

for busy shoppers, and know what ancient rules can now be ignored or broken. A taming of opposites. They give no ground. Still rule

the roost. Suddenly wings and flight to scrappy gum tree branches. Evening sharpens wind to cold: all beaks and claws.

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About Jeff Guess

Jeff Guess teaches English in country and metropolitan secondary schools, poetry at the Adelaide Institute of TAFE, and tutors at the University of South Australia. His first book Leaving Maps appeared in 1984 and was hailed by Judith Rodriguez in The Sydney Morning Heraldas a major collection. Since then ten collections have been published, the most recent being Autumn in Cantabile. He has written three textbooks on teaching poetry and edited nine poetry anthologies. He has won numerous prizes for his poetry and been awarded six writing grants. Further reading:

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