a poem by Sally Denshire published in 2018 in fourW twenty-nine New Writing
Ten days meditation unfurled
deep in the blue gum forest.
‘… you observe noble silence:
reading materials and
electronic devices verboten’.
Ransacked by devices and screens
she is now drawn to read the moths
and joins the line of meditators
rainbow-wrapped against the dawn,
snaking their way down to break fast.
Moths short-lived,
undescribed in any text book,
stuck in a pool of light,
they cluster in formation
at the entrance.
Wings filigreed, verdigris,
black-specked white mesh,
bodies velvety with musty bloom,
wings shimmer like arrowheads,
a mezuzah on the door jamb.
Spoons just right porridge
from a deep blue bowl
and gazes into
the glowing face
of the escarpment.
With each moth reading
body and soul are as
water flowing over sandstone,
‘for were nary a screen anywhere
when reading moths in the eucalypt air’.
Acknowledgement
Published in 2018 in fourW twenty-nine New Writing in association with Booranga Writers’ Centre and re-produced here with kind permission.
Photo credit: Sally Denshire
Look for the moth image above on an NBN box next time you’re in Central Albury.
Riparian 