Silver air is crystallized with ice

Silver air is crystallized with ice

        a numb biting suspension of cold.

        The pine at the road-corner

        of the paddock

        is a huge blasted hoary skeleton

        stopping five seasons ago after fifty

        in a winter little worse than this

        when breath ceased to stir the sky

        against warm green summer needles.

        Now the raw morning releafs the tree

        with a stiff watch of pink galahs

        the first car

        against a white sun will ignite

        with feathered noise and colour

        blur refrozen in the solstice

        of the second

        where a bleak darkness

        is always dropping early.

These poems are from my new collection IN THE APRICOT DARKNESS (view the cover and contents below in my recent posts). They are now being published individually, daily under 'recent posts' on my blog and will be available shortly as an eBook that can be read online or downloaded for free.