November 21st, 2025Local Lines

cocktail party

the evening drips on and on. champagne
bubbles too brightly for a decision that is really
rather flat. some old fool with old fool’s teeth
prattles about verisimilitude in a dry
manner of seeming that rarely rises
to a drone above white noise. another
of no known antiquity is speaking (i think) across me
at an oblique angle; such thoughts as punctuate
time with reality are an eternal
tomorrow. my eye sleepsearches
across a smoke haze of possibility and catches
a star winking at me through a window.
i smile inconsequentially, writing
my slow epitaph. i walk to the window and
talk to the star.

– Rory Hudson

Rory Hudson lives in Point Cook and writes various kinds of poetry as and when the mood seizes him, some of which he reads at Chamber Poets, Woodend. His poems have been published in different Australian magazines.

Local Lines features poetry by locals about local and any other matters.
Please submit poems to Bill Wootton at cottlesbreedge@gmail.com