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trepidation

Remember
that inevitable trudge home
alone? Between daylight
and darkness, dusk and how eerie
the blackbird’s
confident outburst?

That panicky click of dags
from scattering sheep,
the nervous geography
of hills behind
and a wavering coast
before. Foveaux Strait

lying as flat as a paddock,
a scraping subject
spread at your feet.
Yet your fear
meant you never did
take the queenly advantage

for in the sunset, remember
how the sea was all cunning
winks and knowing
just how far you still had to go
before it would finally
drop from view?

Dunedin / Bluff, 21 April 2006