As I Reverse up the Driveway

Shona Bridge

The car window is open

and there you are,

squinting

in late winter sun

which scores my thigh

like light running wild.

I ask no questions:

it’s enough to plumb

this aliveness of skin,

and before

I can harvest the certainty

of you with my hands,

you are the kookaburra’s

territorial cry

and I am a fortress

crumbling—

all my faithful bricks

succumbing to sand.

SHONA BRIDGE is an Australian writer and yoga teacher living on Darkinjung land (NSW Central Coast). Shona is currently working on her debut poetry collection. Her poems have appeared in Hecate, Ribbons, Eucalypt, Kokako and various anthologies.