Poem: Racing the Kangaroo Island Bus

Books & Poetry

In this week’s Poet’s Corner, Jeri Kroll shares a second poem from her latest book, the award-winning verse novel ‘Vanishing Point’.

Wednesday August 17, 2016 Comments

Comments Print article

Racing the Kangaroo Island Bus

The bus drones in the distance
like a shark patrol scanning the coast.
But the road’s empty as I gallop past,
gums and pines guarding the fence.

Just as we wheel around again
the KI bus enters the race,
audience glued to the glass,
snapping their final memories.

Then there’s me and my horse –
we streak past the bus,
a pulse of bronze and blue,
flashing between the trees as the sun sets.

Some point and click
this last glimpse of country.
Horse and human – whoosh and blink –
who was that? No matter.

Now we will always be
that fleeting thought
looping through someone’s mind,
grasped, then gone.

And we are still moving
together into the dark.
We love these moments
when muscles stretch out,

everything fluid and free
in our endless circle.
It’s what we are for
in the time we have left.

No one else needs to know
who, why or how.
We’re here
here
now.

Jeri Kroll is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Flinders University. An award-winning writer for adults and young people, she has published twenty-five books, the most recent being Workshopping the Heart: New and Selected Poems (Wakefield Press 2013), and the verse novel Vanishing Point (Puncher and Wattman 2015). Today’s poem is from Vanishing Point, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Queensland Literary Awards; in the USm the George Washington University stage adaptation of Vanishing Point was a winner in the 47th Kennedy Centre American College Theatre Festival. More about Vanishing Point can be found here.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.

Make a comment View comment guidelines

Jump to next article

Support local arts journalism

Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia.

Donate Here

Comments

Show comments

Will my comment be published? Read the guidelines.

. You are free to republish the text and graphics contained in this article online and in print, on the condition that you follow our republishing guidelines.

You must attribute the author and note prominently that the article was originally published by InReview. You must also inlude a link to InReview. Please note that images are not generally included in this creative commons licence as in most cases we are not the copyright owner. However, if the image has an InReview photographer credit or is marked as “supplied”, you are free to republish it with the appropriate credits.

We recommend you set the canonical link of this content to https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2016/08/17/poem-racing-the-kangaroo-island-bus/ to insure that your SEO is not penalised.

<h1>Poem: Racing the Kangaroo Island Bus</h1>

<p><p>In this week’s Poet’s Corner, Jeri Kroll shares a second poem from her latest book, the award-winning verse novel ‘Vanishing Point’.</p>
</p>
																		<address><a href="https://inreview.com.au/contributors/compiled-by-john-miles/" class="author">Compiled by John Miles</a></address>
											
							<h2><a href="#racing-the-kangaroo-island-bus" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="racing-the-kangaroo-island-bus"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Racing the Kangaroo Island Bus</h2>
<pre style="font-family: breve; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.55;">The bus drones in the distance
like a shark patrol scanning the coast.
But the road’s empty as I gallop past,
gums and pines guarding the fence.

Just as we wheel around again
the KI bus enters the race,
audience glued to the glass,
snapping their final memories.

Then there’s me and my horse –
we streak past the bus,
a pulse of bronze and blue,
flashing between the trees as the sun sets.

Some point and click
this last glimpse of country.
Horse and human – whoosh and blink –
who was that? No matter.

Now we will always be
that fleeting thought
looping through someone’s mind,
grasped, then gone.

And we are still moving
together into the dark.
We love these moments
when muscles stretch out,

everything fluid and free
in our endless circle.
It’s what we are for
in the time we have left.

No one else needs to know
who, why or how.
We’re here
here
now.
</pre>
<p><em>Jeri Kroll is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Flinders University. An award-winning writer for adults and young people, she has published twenty-five books, the most recent being <strong>Workshopping the Heart: New and Selected Poems</strong> (Wakefield Press 2013), and the verse novel <strong>Vanishing Point</strong> (Puncher and Wattman 2015). Today’s poem is from <strong>Vanishing Point</strong>, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Queensland Literary Awards; in the USm the George Washington University stage adaptation of <strong>Vanishing Point</strong> was a winner in the 47th Kennedy Centre American College Theatre Festival. More about <strong>Vanishing Point</strong> can be found <a href="https://puncherandwattmann.com/books/book/vanishing-point">here</a>.</em></p>
<h5><a href="#readers-original-and-unpublished-poems-of-up-to-40-lines-can-be-emailed-with-postal-address-to-poetscornersolsticemedia-com-au-a-poetry-book-will-be-awarded-to-each-contributor" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="readers-original-and-unpublished-poems-of-up-to-40-lines-can-be-emailed-with-postal-address-to-poetscornersolsticemedia-com-au-a-poetry-book-will-be-awarded-to-each-contributor"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to <a href="mailto:poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au">poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au</a>. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.</h5>
							<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://inreview.com.au" target=_blank  rel="canonical">InReview</a> under a Creative Commons licence. Read the <a href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2016/08/17/poem-racing-the-kangaroo-island-bus/" target=_blank  rel="canonical">original article</a>.</p>
							<link href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2016/08/17/poem-racing-the-kangaroo-island-bus/" rel="canonical">

<p><a href="https://inreview.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InReview</a> is an open access, non-profit arts and culture journalism project. Readers can <a href="https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2E9q0000008PVN/inreview-sa-20222023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support our work with a donation</a>. Subscribe to InReview’s free weekly newsletter <a href="https://inreview.com.au/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p>
							<img src="https://inreview.com.au/pixel2.png?cc_article=poem-racing-the-kangaroo-island-bus" width="1" height="1">

Copied to Clipboard