[the monument]
the monument has no plaque
as if to say reputation
lasts as long as secret lemon water writing
held up to the light
the communists and surf lifesavers
aligned against the riff raff
work is a form of everyday resignation
all the long-forgotten aldermen
Margel Hinder a footnote
on her fountain to Elon Musk in Mars
Ethereum sounds like it should be one of ours
as if to say reputation
lasts as long as secret lemon water writing
held up to the light
the communists and surf lifesavers
aligned against the riff raff
work is a form of everyday resignation
all the long-forgotten aldermen
Margel Hinder a footnote
on her fountain to Elon Musk in Mars
Ethereum sounds like it should be one of ours
Keri Glastonbury is Associate Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle. Her most recent poetry collection is 51 Austerities (Giramondo, 2025), and her previous collection Newcastle Sonnets (Giramondo 2018) was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry.