Suzanne Edgar: Tonal Effect, Driving Home, Metaphor, Bird Watcher, Jerrabomberra and Sketch

As day wanes to palest grey

I watch the gun-metal road ahead:

under a sullen sky, see pearly lake

and looming over that, a shadow

cast by the hump-backed hill.

Cars flick past, splashing muck.

Round the bend it’s skeleton trees

all lined up along the verge

with each tree stiff, on one leg,

their threadbare arms so cold.

Metaphor

last of evening’s light

the lake and I are matched

silver lined with wrinkles

Bird Watcher, Jerrabomberra

The blue-grey heron

stalks along, level with me

but keeping a distance.

It steps with quiet intent,

prodding slits between the reeds

that fringe these shallow pools.

Prowling under the trees

I also take great care,

stealthily placing each foot

so as not to snap a twig,

and peering up, through leaves,

for coloured wings that flick.      

Sketch

I’d love to draw your face

with a soft charcoal stick

so every line is marked:

to show where bones lift

the mound of your brow

and where your full lips meet;

when you laugh two dents appear,

there’s a furrow from old frowns.

I’d draw your face at night

as it bends above my own:

you are roof and sky, my smiling eye,

my book to read before I sleep.

Suzanne Edgar