Fly or Swim

By Jane Frank.

 

A three-quarter moon is already hanging

over the old aerodrome and horse paddocks

 

but my head is crammed with the sea—

it’s sheen—mosaic edge against the island,

 

though I suppose these lilac-green grasses

are their own ocean and clouds of pink-

 

chested birds are gathering in the concave

between road and falldown fence.

 

Walking washes away the talk of loss

and change and loneliness so I step fast towards

 

dark clouds to the north. The horses have

already turned their bodies against them.

 

Lightning is a series of thin silver scars

but the rain will be short-lived. Rose-grey

 

birds fly across my path in the half-light

now, in a diagonal line towards the pines.

 

 


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