Poetry

One more upright

Robyn Lance

 

Slender gums newly white

like adolescent boys stripped for a swim.

 

At the shadowy edge of the spinney

a man discards clothes and walks

 

slowly through the familiar forest

savouring warm currents on his skin.

 

He stills and listens to the silence,

one more upright among the trees.

 

A rock wallaby, ears alert, moves off

so close the man feels fur against his leg.