Liaison | By Belinda Rimmer

We had agreed to meet by a river

beside three boulders.

I was to bring a picnic, and he a blanket.

I had gone along the road

signposted, Unsuitable for Motors,

as instructed, followed a rough track

and stopped to watch a heron sulkily

paddling in an old mill pond.

I caught sight of him then

through summer's rusty haze.

He held a bunch of daisies.

The earth seemed to crack, pull me in.

I raced back to my car,

fell into the familiar clutter

of children's books and empty crisp packets.

Sometimes I return to the river,

let ghosts drift up from the water

with their wounds of daisies.

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Belinda's poems are widely published in print and on-line journals. In 2018, she came second in the Ambit Poetry Competition. She was a joint runner-up in the 2019 Stanza Poetry Competition. She is also a joint winner of the Indigo-First Pamphlet Competition, 2018, with her pamphlet, Touching Sharks in Monaco. Later this year, her chapbook, How To Be Silent, based on the life and work of Tllie Olsen, will be published by dancing girl press. Twitter: @belrimmer