Shoes
How they make their way
towards the back door.
A row of them, his, hers,
each day picked up, placed
in a closet rack. Pair after
pair they return, as if willed,
as if marking a thing in the heart
left undone.
This pair wants the garden.
This the rain. This the feet
prowling the carpet, late, baby
in arms, a creature unable
to walk or to crawl, yet who
knows she wants to be moved
to sleep, rests only in motion
from one room to the next,
will recall nothing of these days
of pure need filled only by
those who want nothing more
than to get through each cry
to the swinging bridge of silence
before the next, nothing more
than to move this moment
except, perhaps, to hold it,
like this swaddled bundle
she takes so he might
wash a dish, fold
a shirt, put away shoes
unaccountably returned,
open-mouthed, as if surprised
by their own hunger: this pair
wanting the puddle, this
the hard slap of stone,
the-run-across-against-the-light,
the wait-up-for-me-guys,
the that's-my-cab-
this-is-my-life-
I-will-not-look-back.
What fun I had earlier this year travelling around New
Zealand with the other two Hoop-La poets, Bryan Walpert and Carolyn
McCurdie. And didn't our books do well! All three in the best seller
list!
And
it was so much fun that Bryan and Carolyn are whooping over to
Melbourne in late August to do it all over again. They are at the
House of Bricks on Thursday 27th
August and The Dan on Saturday 29th
August and Sporting Poets on Sunday 30th
August. (For details see below.)
But
the one I am organising is the big one on Friday 28th
August – A Big Read to Celebrate NZ Poetry Day - with 24 local
poets and our two visiting poets joining forces at Collected Works in
the Nicholas Building 37 Swanston Street from 5 – 9 pm. It's going
to go off. I can guarantee.
Thursday 27th
August – 6-30 pm
House of Bricks, 40
Budd Street Collingwood
Saturday 29th August - 2-5pm
Poetry At The Dan – Dan O'Connell
Hotel - 225 Canning Street Carlton
Sunday 30th August 5pm
Sporting Poets – The Charles Weston
Hotel - 27 Weston Street Brunswick
What a wonderful poem, Jennifer: well worth a re-read!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful, celebratory 28th.