another life

“Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.”

The Theologian's Tale / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The wattle is in bloom

And I'm thinking of you

I trace the freckles on your face and you giggle as you tell me what shapes I make

Constellations forming and falling between us

You peer up at me, dark eyes shining like twin moons

Catching glimmers of him in your gaze

But when you smile you melt into moments of me

Of grandmas, Ah Mas and aunties

Ancestral lines colliding

Forgotten homelands, languages and story

You move through space like a meteor

Crashing and curving, playful, determined

You whirl around me

Once, twice

Until you land

So gently I barely know you’re there

But your spirit burns in me like fireflies

Lingering trails of light

Stretching, suspending

Before slowly, dying

What beauty would you have brought into this world, little one?

What light have I dimmed?

I watch the way you scrunch your nose in concentration when you're counting ants

And the way your whole body softens when you dance

I watch the way you touch and talk to every tree on our street

And the way you give names to every bird that we meet

I watch the way you re-tell my bedtime stories because you don’t like how they end

And the way you quietly hum as you paint pictures of rainbows that loop and bend

And I wonder if there is another world where our lives could collide

A galaxy created, not destroyed

Would today have been your birthday?

6 laps around the sun, little one

I cut some wattle and place it in a bottle on the bench

Breathing in that sweet lingering scent

Holding it inside me for just a little longer

Feeling it stretching me, suspend in me

Before slowly, letting go