June 20, 2020Tasmania
The frigid waters of the Huon River
trudge along sodden banks,
muscling aside grasses, and scolding saplings.
Twin swans, crayon black with crimson beaks,
hiss and feint at a six-foot snake
tricked out in beige and chartreuse.
The birds take off, slice the sky;
the river licks the scallop pattern on its surface.
My house, too, is cold, a school
held together with convict nails.
In the morning, I scrape frost from the windows,
to reveal cow faces pressed against the glass.
Lonely and bored, they beg for entry,
lowing into the empty mountains.
When the stove is hot, I bake rolls to eat with blackberry jam,
fruit salvaged before Nanny the Goat
nibbled the vines into seasonal oblivion.
You knock.
I think it is the lamb who clacks daily at my door,
but, no, he is behind you,
eyes black as prunes pressed into the hopeful face.
You brush in.
Your anger is a gift you are happy to present me
and you shrug off your jacket, the better to give it.
When you are spent, you whisk yourself away,
jacket clutched in your fist,
and I am left with the swans and the poisonous snakes,
the goat and the lamb,
and a lovely silence,
and a lean orange cat,
who weekly deposits still-warm marsupials
on my doorstep.