KELLE CUNNINGHAM

            Winter Solstice

Tonight I will catch the sun
dropping its fire
a sphere of brilliance, a blaze of red
Descending gusty channels of wind will hold salt.
The ocean
will wash the chambers of my ears
rinsing the particles of day

A boy is walking the cliffs
where the sign says ‘Danger’
hopping, looking, with his mother,
his body a feather of weight, a trill of skipping feet
Near the edge
He is kicking crumbling bits of scattered rock.
I return to my horizon

but the boy speaks
I may forget his words:
(‘What have you come here for……we’ve come to see
The sun too……..it’s windy…..where do you live’)

But I won’t forget
his bird-like being
lit up with the flight of questions,
the radiant gospel of his thin shoulders and face
turning towards me
as I let go of my sky-view to talk with him
as my Heart becomes the sun.

Kelle Cunningham was born in Warrnambool, and lives in Melbourne, having travelled to the city for study, then returned some years later to live. She has worked at the State Library in Melbourne, and now is having a pause after working for eleven years in Aged Care. She attends the Moat Poets gatherings in Melbourne and is a fan of Judith Rodriguez.