New work from Featured Artist Kathy Parker
Today we’re lucky enough to have some previously unpublished poetry from Featured Artist Kathy Parker. Relax and enjoy the beautiful, haunting images of On Still Nights and Heat.
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| Photo by Ryan Hutton on Unsplash |
On Still Nights
On still nights he hears
the call of my bones
knows my weakness
comes to my door
waits for me to offer
a drink between nuances
distraction between thighs
it is predictable the way
this hungry creature in me
pretends to be satisfied
with crumbs
how I send him home
with a paper bag
of leftover lies
not to become gluttonous
with wanting, myself
go to bed alone
finger the rumble strip
protruding from my side
count bones
to help me fall asleep.
Heat
I held your hand as the forest stilled
and the air grew cold; a silent prophecy
a prediction not felt but tasted
upon our tongues
your thumb drawing circles
on my palm, the callous of your skin
still felt against mine
like a phantom limb gnawing
at the empty hours of my sleep.
There are twenty-three circles
around the fallen branch
of the tree we once named ours
she has been here longer than we
ever knew how; roots fumble below
damp earth the way we fumbled over
truth, never sure of the way to turn.
I have been thinking of the winter;
how hardened we became as resignation
stole the colour from our eyes
how we clothed our bodies in husk
and called ourselves weatherproof
how we have become like Banksia seeds;
hope held tight beneath resin seal
restless for the heat of a wildfire
to awaken new birth.