[June 2008]

ROBIN LOFTUS

 

 

Walleah Press

Currajah



Ties That Bind


I am tired of this language
that has entranced and bound me
since the first season’s apples
bloomed in my cheeks
and my skin was smooth
as sea-worn stones.

I want to go beyond the straight line
of black confining hills
to be the music of water,
the harmonies of sea and shore,
to be quiet as the air
after the bells stop ringing,
the wind ceases to bend the grass

to go beyond the possibility of stars
where no-one has ever walked
or laughed or wept –
and my tongue is stilled.

 

Robin Loftus has published widely in Australian periodicals and newspapers. Her first collection, Flying Fish appeared in 1992, her second - BACKYARD COSMOS: new and selected poems - in 2000. Her most recent collection is A Certain Radiance, Picaro Press, 2006.She lives in Newcastle.