New Poetry by Louise McKenna

Leaf

Wait

let me pause like a comma

            to read the history of this leaf

                        a flyer swing-boating on a current of air

                        if I could catch it

                            hold it like this

                        up to the light

this yellowed papery message

is pin holed with stigmata

after a brief assignation

with a year of sorrows

and a red gum older than Australia

such unweighable loss has always been with us

            trees spending their currency

as the sun x rays each capillary

look up through

the silhouetted lungs of the tree

to the cracked blue pane

of sky

the only remedies

are our faithful roots,

the impossible apex of a

shoot

- © Louise McKenna 2021

Louise McKenna is an Adelaide poet. Her chapbook ‘The Martyrdom of Bees’ was published by Garron Press in 2016. She has been published in many journals, including ‘Cordite’ and ‘Meanjin.’ She is currently working on a second chapbook and is elated to have a working title at last.