detainee
Merlinda Bobis

how easily a speck of bird
shatters the evenness of skies —

she peers, stunned, from cell 22

awed that such dumb minuteness
can shake the earth

Merlinda Carullo Bobis is a contemporary Philippine Australian writer and academic. She is the author of award-winning titles including Summer Was a Fast Train without Terminals (1998) and White Turtle published in USA under the title, The Kissing. Her latest novel is Banana Heart Summer. Currently, she lectures in creative writing at the University of Wollongong.

From: Summer was a Fast Train without Terminals
p 43

Website: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au