Imprint
On a day when promises have been broken
I think of the waterfall
that flowed through things once
there was less talk and the world could
paint over any deep urgency
in quiet harmonies
I remember the way
the mountains buffed against the sky
clouds pressing down
on the line of ragged trees
the orange grasses of many paddocks
crosshatched
fences sewn in with amber thread
Today the sky is a deceitful
powder blue
and I am imprisoned
by city shapes
and their titanium lies
but the past has its own colours:
I recall especially the map
of a summer
evening, the sun slipping vivid as phlox
between the flat brown
hill and the creamy waters
of the river, all caught in a stem-
snapped second on my
old polaroid camera,
the firm imprint of kindness
in the light
grip of your hand
Jane Frank’s latest chapbook is Wide River (Calanthe Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared most recently in Westerly, Plumwood Mountain, StylusLit, Shearsman, Burrow, Meridian, Social Alternatives, Grieve vol 9 (Hunter Writers Centre, 2021), Not Very Quiet: The Anthology (Recent Work Press, 2021), Poetry for the Planet (Litoria Press, 2021) and The Incompleteness Book II (Recent Work Press, 2021). She was recently shortlisted for both The Newcastle Poetry Prize 2021 and Takahe’s Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2021. In March 2021, Jane was a Feature Poet at StAnza International Poetry Festival (St. Andrews, Scotland). Originally from the Fraser Coast region, Jane now lives in Brisbane and teaches in Humanities at Griffith University. Read more of her work at https://www.facebook.com/JaneFrankPoet/ and https://janefrankpoetry.wordpress.com/
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