I was driving north to Woombye
on what is now the Steve Irwin Way,
but was then the Glass House Mountains Road,
when I beamed a juvenile tiger quoll
feasting on tartare of cane toad
in a blaze of sclerophyll
like something out of a romantic zombie
comedy filmed in Gympie.
Now I think of the pine plantations of Beerburrum
as a between-space—a zwischenraum
where carnivorous undead Bambi
creep up on doomed young romantics in their combi
van: dreamcatcher swaying, Rachmaninoff
surging as we slow zoom through the moonroof.
Jaya Savige was born in Sydney, grew up on Bribie Island, and lives and works in London. He is the author of Latecomers, which won the NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Prize, and Surface to Air, which was shortlisted for The Age Poetry Book of the Year. His next collection will be published by UQP in 2020. www.jayasavige.com