by Jerzy Beaumont

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Have you ever
come across a house that could be improved
with arson?
Red-bricked division, stained carpet.

The ceiling sags in on load-bearing tenants.
My bedroom door won’t open
without a shoulder-barge.
Cracked composition, and yet-

I need it. I can’t afford to live alone
so I live aloner
smiling perfunctory at meal times
scoring small-talk collisions in kitchenette tiles.

Move on. This waystation makes no apologies.
The garden blooms unbidden.
All the doors
lock.

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Currently studying a Bachelor of Writing at the University of Canberra, Jerzy ‘Brojay’ Beaumont co-MCs That Poetry Thing and represented the ACT at the 2017 APS finals. He has shared his work from Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! to Boston, and writes from the margin between cautionary tale and triumph.