A Little Shelter.

A Little Shelter
for JS Harry

   Everything eventually
   finds some resting place
   the shabby ibis
   with its overcrowded nest
   of enormous
   ugly darlings jostling
   in the cocos palm
   rain working its way
   into the dry dark core
   of trees sighing finally
   into intricate veins of leaves
   street kids borrowing
   for a little while
   the small shelter of an overpass
   their ragged blankets
   hung up in bleak defence against
   the glare of lights
   and traffic noise
   though little use
   against mosquitoes breeding
   in the slow storm water
   which runs below feeding
   freely on thin blood
   and so you are moving
   toward infinity
   the place that has no name
   and refuses mapping
   there are no directions in the stars
   there may be consolation
   in the wind

Nicolette Stasko

This poem first appeared in Nicolette Stasko's collection The Weight of Irises, Published by Black Pepper. 2003, ISBN1 876044 39 X RRP $23.95