Michael J. Leach (@m_jleach) is an Australian academic and poet. Michael’s poems reside in The Galway Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Meniscus, Rabbit, The Blue Nib, Plumwood Mountain, the Medical Journal of Australia, the Antarctic Poetry Exhibition, and elsewhere. His poetry has been anthologised in One Surviving Poem (ICOE Press, 2019), No News (Recent Work Press, 2020), and Still You (Wolf Ridge Press, 2020). Michael’s first book is the chapbook Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020). He lives on Dja Dja Wurrung Country and acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land.

Wistful Wanderlust

for Pickles

A young wordsmith from Galway
left her home via the hallway.
She moved to Thailand—
so far from Ireland.
She’ll remember Galway…always.