Glass Castle

Casey Mulder

Enraged
We stand together, gawking
at this glass castle -
and the illusion of infallibility

We tap lightly at first,
then with fists
A shard
a crack

Out in force they come
In fear
Desperately trying to reinforce -
to delay the undoing

We stand and make a layer of life
around the structure
Not to protect
but to allow space

It is space that is needed.
Our breath erodes the foundation
And we watch
as it shatters

The outer throng scream and shout,
clinging to the shards
Hands bloodied
Flesh on display

Still, we stand as punches land
on bone and words pierce hearts
The space we move in is ours
– from Country to Spirit

As the glass castle falls
We look to the sky once more

Casey Mulder is a Ballardong Noongar yorga with Dutch and English heritage. She loves storytelling in all its forms and lives on Whadjuk boodja. Casey works in a variety of education roles, and is also a freelance editor and writer. She facilitates the First Nations Write Night at the Centre for Stories with Luisa Mitchell, and is currently working on a creative non-fiction manuscript with the support of the Centre for Stories, Magabala Books and Australian Indigenous Coffee. Casey is also the First Nations editor for Westerly Magazine and is currently co-editing a Micro Memoir anthology with Night Parrot Press.