Toby Fitch

deep-red from rose-dirt my orchid

left the back porch with an awkward gait

headed down the swamp which it entered

head first open-mouthed before i could speak

it was kicking its roots like legs luring comets

to criss-cross above when two finally collided

the sky switched channels to static cutting

the night with a knife i gaped back down

orchid was gone in the deep-red swamp

were rhythmic gelatinous ripples as tho

invisible pebbles were being dropped at

perfectly repeated intervals been staring

into space ever since ecstatically deep

the branches stoop & the leaf-eyes dilate

searching my garden for the remote

Toby Fitch is poetry editor for Overland. His books include Rawshock, which won the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry 2012, Jerilderies and, most recently, The Bloomin’ Notions of Other & Beau. He lives in Sydney where he also works as a bookseller and a teacher.