Warmth                                               

July 25, 2026
4 hours

Calvary Hospital, Hobart

 

Watchful, efficient

the nurses take time to talk

listen and reassure.

 

In every corridor, clocks on walls

mimic them at work –

hands never resting.

 

At windows, a pallid half-moon

appears like a wounded creature

waiting to be admitted

 

and a chill wind from the west

wraps a gauze of mist

around the mountain’s face

 

while inside, the wards are warm

and kindness prevails

in this white-and-chrome-filled world.

 

 

 

Liz McQuilkin

Liz McQuilkin, a former English teacher, began writing poetry after retiring. Her collaboration – with four other Tasmanian poets – in the collection Of Things Being Various won the FAW National Community Award in 2010 and was published by Forty Degrees South in 2011. The Nonchalant Garden (Walleah Press, 2014) was her first solo collection. She collaborated with Karen Knight in Renovating Madness: Poems of Willow Court and the Royal Derwent Hospital (Walleah Press, 2018). Her second solo collection, Unwrapping Clouds, was published by Forty South in 2022. Recently, another collaboration has seen the publication of The Dear Four (Walleah Press, 2025).

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