In the Wake of the Seasonal Scarlet Sun
A poem by Donna Best

In the Wake of the Seasonal Scarlet Sun

Reports speak of summer’s hard knuckle heat.
When I opened the door
the ball of sun intersecting day and night
revealed itself
glared as an eyeball and waited, scarlet
above sandhills, through smoke.

Slow. Slow burn off has quickened the pace.
On invisible flows, as if dream-shapes
with beaks and beating wings
iridescent Spangled Drongos’ mimicry
abounds in the aftermath.

I squat to the ground and note the drivers;
the sense of life’s seasons, withered, broken.
The loss of what it depends on
like the loss of bread in my mouth
when my stomach cries out.

Thin branches, flimsy renters of space sigh
possessed by breezes coming and going
visitors with cloud bursts that downpour
on earth, ash and scats.
Tender shoots take-up sap.
Birth buds and bulbs.
Criss-cross stem scaffolds.

Welcome. Welcome the wet mat at my feet.
It meets the daily cracks.
Transfixed by thunder, pageant of nature
I catch the emotion of the claps.
Smoke’s billows, now unmapped as if
movement of music, mysterious and unfixed
on an island of forget.

But formidable at this distance
tomorrow lives in a cloud while the long day
glazes the ground.
Soft whispers uttered by the shoreline
stress the pleasure of little things
scaled as miniscule, sheer as ghost nets;
the touch of others. Nanoseconds of might.
Other parts, touches of yet.

Slow. Slowly. The burning rewrites life.
And hopes lodged with a beautiful glow stand-by
with the tinge of scarlet upcurved, flame-like, paused
then flow as swift exquisite clear notes
spurred to banter with a gasping sky
its blueprint upset
barely recognisable to Kestrels.

The hours run, run impatient for tomorrow
reading the light, sowing stars for beyond the burn-off
for beyond the season of comings and goings when
remembering speaks of scarlet suns.
Like the smoke-blinded moon I walk its walk
to silent nights, their more than a little silver solace aroused
but not yet out.

About the Author:

Donna Best is an Australian poet. She writes to share today, aspirations for tomorrow, bravery of others and what we all have in common.

Published in anthologies, newspapers and journals, broadcast on Queensland radio stations.

Awarded as first for Kenilworth Arts Festival (Poetry) and as a winner in Queensland Poetry Ekphrasis Challenge

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