DAEL ALLISON

fireflies summon

 

this is darkness

          the river swollen with doubt

          its sullen mutter

 

the sky is a haul of dead fish

spilt from a sprung trap

          pewter underbellies mirror

          moonless glints of chop

 

the river surface teems

with eviscerated roots

          broken leaf and shoot

          drowned logs – crocodile echoes

death shushes past

 

i shrink

from the river’s wet fingering

          my dry-leaf canoe a fragile

          tipping husk

 

balance is a febrile dream

fixed

          on the agitation of the motor

          the small propeller’s churn

 

nowhere

          the shifting point

          between certain and uncertain

between solid ground

and sucking abyss

          the interface a muddy bank

          of unassailable silt

 

there is no anchor point

          the night wind frays belief

          a heron flaps a black rag

 

but chance is a dance

of pinpoint light –

          fireflies summon certainty

          and weave a safety net

of wonder