Kristin Hannaford


Island

Standing with this map, unfolded
open on the hot car bonnet,
silver fittings heat white with glare,
you try to place my finger on the map, to place
the heart along seams of paper
small creases, origamis of river
deltas and highways.
Thick conduit of traffic
beasting past
as hordes of buffalo
drum the terrain of passage,
the singular hum of motorcycle
countering overhead bypass.
You run the fingers of your hand
along the inner rim of shirt collar
wiping sweat or fatigue,
uncertain gestures, which
you adjust as sunglasses and side mirrors.
Upholstery of our seats burning
until you lean forward,
the wash of cooler air signalling
you know the way, it’s resolved.



Paint Swatch Haiku

Field Mouse

Twitch of whisker, scent
of fresh bread. Kisses slowly
given. First picnic.


Old Owl

Happens as shadow,
wind carrying pale feathers.
Soundless span of flight.


Milky Stone

Smooth in her pocket,
grey Cox’s River pebble
sun’s warmth leaching.



Kristin Hannaford lives in Yeppoon, on the Capricorn Coast of Queensland, Australia, with her husband and two sons. Her work has appeared most recently in papertiger05/06, Famous Reporter, Treci Trg (Serbia), Small Packages 2005 QPF Anthology and on ABC Radio National’s Poetica.

Poems from her Wetland Sonnets sequence won the 2004 Leichhardt New Media Poetry Prize, and joint second for New Media in the 2004 Newcastle Poetry Prize. Swelter (Interactive Press 2003) includes her first collection of poetry, ‘Inhale’. She recently completed a residency at Varuna via the Macquarie Bank Longlines programme, and is currently at work on her second collection of poems.

She has a website at www.kristinhannaford.com

 
 
 
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