Eastern brown snake

By Lisa Brockwell

Always here
and seldom seen.
 
The long tail of you
           curves along
                      Ewingsdale Road
                                 as I wait in traffic
                                            to take
                                 my son to school.
                      Staff from the hotel,
           nurses from the hospital,
sitting in their cars,
           handbags, breakfast
                      bananas, sunglasses.
 
 
A slow moving
           procession
                      along the hot, black
                                            tarmac,
                                 radiating
                      the heat you seek. 

 

I would like to acknowledge the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung Nation who are the traditional custodians of the land where the Byron Writers Festival is held.  

New Shoots cultivates and celebrates poems inspired by plants. As part of our Poetic Moments project, in partnership with Byron Writers Festival and Elements Resort, in 2017 we commissioned local poet Lisa Brockwell to create a new series of poems that respond to the Byron Shire environment. Lisa's poems featured on seeded paper, scattered throughout Elements Resort.