[return to Contents Page]

Ynes Sanz

Mt Glorious
(for Jo)

in the slatey out-of-town darkness from the linen cocoon of an unknown bed in a stranger's house I can feel the rainforest breathing behind its sudden edge

today in broken sunlight on the muddy track I looked up and counted them off celery top strangler fig lawyer vine cedar then stopped for a smell of moss and astringent blue fruit that crackled strangely on the palate

I heard for the first time the squall of a catbird and scanned the canopy for a flash of feathers with dusk the forest settles once again the old dog shudders in its arthritic sleep and wakes in the night to bark

I dream of a bath and a great dog advancing shoulder deep I do not doubt it when I am told here are dingoes and can only regret that I failed to wake and hear them

driving down the mountain
dew on the Harleys
and a howling in my head

[return to Contents Page]