On West 46 and Broadway

there's newly matyred Christians

selling salvation

whilst kitty-cornered across the road

the devil sells damnation

for only the price of your soul

And it's kinda weird

how there's always a crowd

around Beelzebub's limo

whilst people avoid the gazes

of God's honest foot soldiers

Flashback to my first book of poetry, Defenestration, published in 1997. Now back in print.

~~~

Luckily for me as part of the ‘Getting Published' course I did in the 1990s, I had the chance to show my work to the teacher, Stephen Matthews of Ginninderra Press. He kindly offered to assess it and let us know if we had a chance of being published by a major publishing house. Sadly for all aspiring authors, publishers get far too many unsolicited manuscripts (the slush pile) to be able to offer any feedback. I grabbed the chance with both hands.

When Stephen handed back my poetry and asked if there were any more, enough to make a collection I was gobsmacked. Not only did he think my poems were good enough to publish, he was going to publish them!!! My name. On the cover. Of a real book!