IT CANNOT BE FOR ANYTHING ELSE

I’ll know you when I see you You’ll be the one that I mistake for an autumn tree Scratching off your scales, letting loose your leaves so The barrier between our bodies is less when you come for me And it cannot be for anything else, this shedding of skin But to love me with

I’ll know you when I hear you You’ll be the one in a murder of black winged flapping Singing low to make their feathers frantic slow they are calm when you hold out my arm for them and they cannot be for anything else, these fearsome birds but to love me with

I’ll know you when I feel you You’ll be the one elbow deep in that swamp Dredging up dirt muddled with saltwater stale this warm thick mud you'll spread across my chest and it cannot be for anything else, your foul mark but to love me with

Shele Parker Black is a Darwin based poet. Her work, There’ll Be A Payphone At The Roadhouse, was recently shortlisted in the poetry category for the 2018 Northern Territory Literary Awards. Her piece, Nebula, was published in Cordite: DIFFICULT. She works as a community arts producer in Darwin. Black is currently writing her first book of poetry.