Salt Lemon by Noëlle Janaczewska

Salt Lemon

Noëlle Janaczewska

The creek. The salt. The salt rising through

the soil. The creek the channels and the land

and the citrus trees growing on the land

despoiled. The salt. The sorrow pips growing

inside the locals. The bitterness. The creek. The dust

in the bed. The salt. The locals. The sorrow

squeezing them dry. The creek. The channels.

The dust in the bed. The dearth. The salt

rising. The lemons already. The creek. The locals.

The leaving. The dust the dearth and the bitterness

and the leaving. The lemons already half way to

margaritas. The trees. The whiteness

that rimes on your skin, that chokes the stars,

and the dust in the bed of the creek on the land

where the salt is the earth

and the lemons

are full of it.

Noëlle Janaczewska

Noëlle Janaczewska writes poetry, spoken word, performance texts, plays, essays and radio scripts across drama and non-fiction. Her work has been published, performed and broadcast throughout Australia and overseas. The recipient of 5 AWGIE (Australian Writers' Guild) Awards, her stage plays have won the Griffin Playwriting Award, the Playbox-Asialink Playwriting Competition and the 2006 Queensland Premier's Literary Award. Recent productions include: Dark Paradise for ABC Radio National, 2009, and The Hannah First Collection, 1919-1949 for the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai.
Noëlle has published in anthologies, literary journals and on-line magazines. Most recently her poems Jesus's Ass (by way of Nietzsche) and Learning (to love) the Clarinet were published in Cordite and Extempore respectively. The poems she wrote for Kathryn Millard's film Travelling Light feature on the soundtrack CD, and in 2006 The Wayzgoose Press published her long poem Dorothy Lamour's Life as a Phrasebook. Find out more about Noëlle's work at www.outlier-nj.blogspot.com and www.noellejanaczewska.com