Buoyed by Bridges

Joyce Parkes has published poetry in literary magazines, journals, and anthologies, in Australia, the UK, Finland, Canada, the US, Germany, New Zealand and Northern Ireland. Her work was included in The Best Australian Poetry anthology 2005 - (UQP).

"Buoyed by Bridges" was published in The Journal of the Australian Irish Heritage Association, Volume 20, No.3, p.38, September 2012. Editor: Ian Chambers, PhD.

Buoyed by Bridges
(For J.M.G.P.D.)

Where residences and rivers exist
bridges could be seen, and missed,
on either side of the divide where

tallies of tantivy could be waved to
greet dwellers who will also nurture
chillies and green peppers, nourishing

sojourners and story tellers. Buoyed
by bridges spanning rafts and ripples
they would sojourn when reading,

dwell when writing, dive to fathom
findings without forgetting the home-
less (O the horror, the horror), the

tortured, the taunted, the silenced,
the hungry — asking Jake and Jade
to proffer rice with vegetables and

spices or potato and cabbage
surprises as well as a slice of paw-
paw, or a pear, drinks and glasses.