There is still this

There is still this: a

breeze coming through

the window at nine as I talk

on the phone to someone

who is not you. There is still

this: the comfort of black tea,

hot, already the second cup of

day two. One day at a time, like

an alcoholic recovering, my friend

counsels: I read in the tea a promise:

things will blow over the holes left

by your silence, the absence of

your voice.

The Canberra Times, March 2004