argent tendrils lift
coarse from brow the incline
tipped with chill and sentience
a divine ire written as if
taught by nose or
history’s small tightenings –
hands have white
vestiges of oven dish
new knife – a scald
witnesses disintegration
as focus blurs around
careers like banksia with
every cone worked for
each resolve sprung
Anne Elvey is author of White on White (Cordite, 2018), Kin (FIP, 2014) and This Flesh That You Know (chapbook; Leaf Press, 2015). She is managing editor of Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics. Anne holds honorary appointments at Monash University and University of Divinity, Melbourne.