TEN THOUSAND JOYS
-
Magdalena Ball (Australia)
What would
you do
in the
cold night air
dreams
soft for memory?
The way has always been long
choppy, walked barefoot
in
broken shadow.
In the morning, you watched
the porthole over your
shoulder
as
if nothing was new
but I knew you knew better.
Light echoes off the gap
the
boundary line
your eyes shaded but bright
someone playing with a switch,
on/off
hinting
who you
might be
in this new absence.
If there’s no one
on the other side why am I
waving
like
a fellow exile, old country to new
running from ropes of history
we couldn’t love blindly, hand
on heart
didn’t
think twice, signed the paper, swore
then gathered in, another
morning
against the odds, thanking
stars
not
gods, that we got out
sweet smell of forest floor
the homecoming you didn’t know
you
needed.
Static electric across the
toughest border
where only poets dance, a
chance encounter
fluctuation,
perfectly illuminated.
****