ROSS JACKSON

A night break in the burbs

they’re both half-awake, all of
upstairs open to a cool breeze
yet to arrive, a car pulls in hard
against next door’s kerb
taxi door’s ajar, a flower spray

from the car’s interior light
blooms on their ceiling
a faint radio raga appears
to make the hem of the dim
curtains dance, the price to pay

kept to a few muffled words
car doors shut tight
on a world now passed, since
tomorrow’s concerns widen
with incipient light

---

Ross Jackson lives in Perth. He has had poems published in Westerly, Cordite Poetry, Rabbit Poetry, The High Window, Communion, Poetry New Zealand and in many other literary journals and poetry Websites.