ROBIN LOFTUS


Early Gifts


This morning I rose early
knowing sleep had escaped
I tweaked the curtains open
                              just a little
not to disturb my love
slumbering in a web of dreams.

Ah! They say miracles don’t happen
you might call it serendipity –
but at this tweaking moment
the sky is flaming apricots and violets.

Ambassador to the morning
I strike a pose at my window
for this is my moment – a gift
to be snugged away in my vast armoire
along with loss, grief, desire, joy,
bemusement, and those others
that are labelled ‘handle with care’.

The ocean has flung a dark blue satin quilt
from my feet to the edge of the world –
as happens with a wind from the west,
and the great gum tree in the garden
glistens gold – its cargo of birds
awakening from enchanted sleep
singing Yes! to this fledgling day.

The sun will soon nudge up –
too great a dazzle for human eyes;
perhaps only gods dare gaze
into this helio-globe of fire.

I would step out, embrace it all
were it not for the pane between us –
I wait and let it enter me.
My heart melds, then mends

as the sun hefts itself up, breaks free
all the technicolour splendour
blenches. Sky and sea become pure light.