The Races
by Lindy Warrell
Horses for courses
and dad’s cash-lined pockets, for
money’s made round to go round Luv.
We’d check out the bookies, stalls, jockeys,
trainers and owners who all liked
a young girl like me
hairdresser every Saturday morning
a new drunken bed by midnight,
waking early to creep home —
ripped stockings, lost bra, crumpled dress,
knickers and a smile in my purse.
And, there stood dad
at the top of the stairs
a glare
a pivot on heels
taking it out on me
that he lost.
About the author
Lindy Warrell lives in Glenelg, a South Australian seaside suburb and international tourist destination. Her poems appear online and in journals and anthologies. Since 2018, she has published three chapbooks, ‘Ol’ Girl Can Drive’, ‘Soft Toys for Grown-ups and ‘Life Blinks’. In free-verse poetry Lindy evokes the Australian outback, cityscapes, old age, random moments and disturbing things. She is the founding convenor of TramsEnd Poets, a successful poetry critique group and has co-edited two poetry anthologies. Ochre, for Ochre Coast Poets in 2014 and, in 2019, Alchemy, the 43 Reader of Friendly Street Poets Inc., a poetry collective founded in 1975.
In her spare time, although addicted to Indian soapies and dramas on Netflix, many of which run to 40 or 50+ episodes, she writes novels.
Lindy’s website:
https://www.wattletales.com.au
Other work by Lindy on Flashes:
1974
Read more poetry on Flashes
