Driftwood
Pandanus woven with netted floats
we enter her side of the island
feeling primitive exploratory
entering a cave of limbs
knobbed arms of pandanus reach over, they knit us
into her wall of collections
fish skeletons and carved driftwood,
fishing nets, foam buoys and corals
a life spent dragging the sea.
Bright with talk of her island, she makes us coffee
sliding into a whistle for the birds
worrying how her creatures will settle
as she sells up for the mainland.
Peachfaces scatter round the kitchen and perch together
beaks entwining, they peck and whistle ‘tut tut tut’
crab-eyed her vision darts.
Afternoon: I watch her from the beach
staggering with piles of rubbish
she sets the forty gallon drum alight
shadows of wild black smoke
cover her like crows wings
her face appearing, flashing in and out of view
fresh wind off the ocean lashing.
Reviews of Kristin Hannaford's collection Curio
Hamish Danks Brown, reviewing Curio in Rochford Street Review
Mary Cresswell, reviewing Curio in Plumwood Mountain, Vol 2 No 1, Feb 2015.
Anne Elvey, reviewing Curio along with Julie Maclean’s When I saw Jimi and Kiss of the Viking in Cordite, 5th February 2015.
Poetry selection from 'Curio'
One more feather and I'll fly
Portrait
Assisted Passage
Skulduggery
More poems by Kristin Hannaford
Curlew
Unwinding
Birthday
Lee side, On board the Triton
Miscellaneous
Kristin Hannaford, launching Paul Summer's collection
primitive cartography, Rockhampton, August 23rd, 2013.