Poem: Nocturnal Wedding
Books & Poetry
This week’s Poet’s Corner contribution is from Sue Cook in Adelaide.
Nocturnal Wedding
Flanked by tall standard roses, the red bricks
of the driveway are splattered in white confetti
this morning as I wade through them
to fetch the Sunday paper…
Perhaps there was a secret wedding here last night
under the orange halo of the streetlamp,
the soundtrack no pompous wedding march
but one of wailing wind and swishing roses.
With her train and his coat tails whirling
bride and groom sashay into place
ignoring the weather, exchange vows,
eye-gaze deeply, lips locked together,
the civil celebrant upturns his coat collar
best man and maid shiver bravely
white rose petals rain on the players as
the wind chimes ring like wedding bells…
I turn, and as I wade back through the wet confetti,
I shake it off the plastic-wrapped news of the day,
I wonder…
Sue Cook lives in Adelaide. A former senior English teacher, she also edited the South Australian English Teachers Association’s annual poetry anthology. In addition to appearances in numerous poetry magazines and anthologies for her own work, she has published the collections In Focus, Water Music, Parallel Lines, in 2016, 2018, 2022. Her poem ‘Frog Cakes’ was featured in InDaily Poet’s Corner in 2015, from where it was taken up for promotional use by the maker of that South Australian icon, and her Kangaroo Island poems have also been prominent in her contributions to the column over the years.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.
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