B N Oakman

A flirtation with frugality entices me
to write shopping lists
on the reverse side of drafts of poems
the many not-yet-ready ones
so if I fumble the frozen peas
and overturn my list
my mind jumps
to thoughts of rhythm and meter and line
and sometimes even grasps for a rhyme
- a fleeting challenge
from a humble but insistent art
to the abiding tyranny of necessity.

BN Oakman is an economist whose prize-winning short fiction and poetry has appeared in or been accepted for Overland, Southerly, Eureka Street, Social Alternatives, Island, Tirra Lirra, Westerly, The Australian, The Age, The Canberra Times, Famous Reporter, Going Down Swinging, Imago, Australian Short Stories, Northern Perspective, The Mozzie, in anthologies used in schools, and elsewhere. <brubarb@aapt.net.au>