Poem: To a piece of corrugated iron lying in a creek bed

In other parts of the world, the subject of this week’s Poet’s Corner contribution from Tarla Kramer is called wriggly tin. In Australia, it’s an icon of the nation.

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Apr 13, 2022, updated Mar 18, 2025

To a piece of corrugated iron lying in a creek bed

You began your life at the top of the house keeping out rain
and maybe you think you’re going to keep things like this
but one day life is going to tear you off that perch

you’ll be put on a chook house or a cubby for a season
but the time will come you’ll be so full of holes
you’ll end up dangling from a wire fence over a creek

until a flood rips you too far away to be put back
if you’re lucky some kids will find you
and ride you down a steep bank

then leave you mangled and half torn in two
time will bury your rusting self so deep
the wind will never take you anywhere again

and then a drought will come
and someone will see you
for the first time in half a decade

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maybe they’ll forget you again
or maybe they’ll pick you up
take you to the dump

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and you really
will be
gone.

Tarla Kramer lives in Quorn in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. She has a Graduate Diploma in Arts (Creative Writing) from Tabor College. Her chapbook “poems for the non-compliant” was published by Ginninderra Press in January and can be found here.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.

 

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