Faery Bread
after Mem Fox | for Brooke Scobie & Lucy Norton

In Aoife’s backyard,
we read poems about landlords,
birds, and bad friends.

Our feet are aglow,
toes haloed by a broken faery
ring of toadstools.

Night traffic heckles us
like honeyeaters
as ambulances splash

the shed in reds and blues.
Someone’s made magic
pudding, faery bread, wombat

stew. I clock the shadow
of a possum climbing a power line
on a house across the road

—fainter than a fading bruise.
I think Hush has come
to pay us a visit, still searching

for the food that’ll make
her visible again. I want to invite
her down to our tea party

to chew at the edges
of our poems until she feels
whole again like I do.

Note: ‘Faery Bread’ references the Australian children’s classics Possum Magic, The Magic Pudding, and Wombat Stew. The poem was inspired by my feature reading with Rae White and Laura Bibby for The Braddyton in 2024 and the nourishing community I felt there.

About the author

Sean West (he/they) is an Autistic poet, support worker, and workshop facilitator based in Meanjin. In 2025, they won a Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award and were runner-up in the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. Their debut chapbook is Gutless Wonder (Queensland Poetry, 2023). They are the founding editor of Blue Bottle Journal. Find more at www.callmemariah.com. 

Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash.