Unearthly Screams
written by: Michael J Leach
Tasmania, 1882
Unearthly screams pierced the bush that night
as a settler trudged by lantern light.
He felt the cold, fresh fear & remorse.
He prayed to soon find a skittish horse
who’d heard those screams & bolted in fright.
He held his farrier’s tool so tight,
his muscles ready for flight or fight.
This man feared nothing except, of course,
unearthly screams.
As those screams loudened, he glimpsed a sight
that made him wish he were a bush knight
like late Ned Kelly, who was, of course,
scared of nothing yet taken by force.
He held his breath & pressed on despite
unearthly screams.
Michael J. Leach lives on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Strathfieldsaye, Australia. Michael’s poems have appeared in journals such as Cordite Poetry Review, exhibitions such as the Antarctic Poetry Exhibition, anthologies such as Poetry d’Amour 2022: Love Poems (WA Poets Inc., 2022), and his two poetry books: Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020) and Natural Philosophies (Recent Work Press, 2022). Michael’s poems have also won or been shortlisted/commended in the UniSA Mental Health and Wellbeing Poetry Competition (2015), Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine (2021), Minds Shine Bright Confidence Writing Competition (2022), and Woollahra Digital Literary Award (2023). During 2024, he will publish two new poetry books through In Case of Emergency Press and Ginninderra Press.
Latest posts by Michael J. Leach (see all)
- Senryu Songs - May 22, 2024
- Sunday Morning Flight - January 28, 2024
- One Halloween - October 29, 2023
