Return Trip

heavy fog / on the road
back to Lismore

does it count
if i don’t recall arriving

haunted valleys / mist
slinks beyond daybreak

she told me i don’t need to keep
other people’s secrets

waking nightly i tell myself
i don’t care / a call for help

the intruder i heard was me, leaving
the freezer ajar

does it count
if i heard childhood

in the lowing of the cows
in voices that kept the wrong secrets

does it count if i claim to recognise
patterns / if recollection is a story

we tell ourselves / driving
thickening fog / arrests my progress

cattle on the road back / sun cascade
i cup my palms / hide my freckles.