DUPLEX POEM
NATHANAEL O'REILLY
NEGOTIATIONS
Cross the Pacific and the equator,
travel all night in darkness across
the dateline. Travel all night through
darkness. Adjust posture, endure cramped seats
in darkness. Adjust, endure cramped seats.
Speed home at nine hundred kms per hour.
Speed home at nine hundred kms per hour
towards family, friends and the past.
Fly to family, friends and your past.
Traverse decades of exile overseas.
Negotiate decades of exile abroad,
fly across the ocean, embrace and kiss.
Fly over the ocean, embrace and kiss.
Cross the Pacific and the equator.
Nathanael O’Reilly is an Irish-Australian poet; he teaches creative writing at The University of Texas at Arlington. His eight collections include Boulevard (Beir Bua Press, 2021), (Un)belonging (Recent Work Press, 2020), BLUE (above/ground press, 2020), Preparations for Departure (UWAP, 2017) and Distance (Ginninderra Press, 2015). His poetry appears in over one hundred journals and anthologies published in fourteen countries, including Another Chicago Magazine, Anthropocene, Cordite Poetry Review, New World Writing, and Wisconsin Review. He is the poetry editor for Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/New Zealand Literature.