Allan Lake

As I  slowly cycle along

Elwood canal, overhanging

branches threaten to leaf

my face.  I dare them, then

go out of my way to nuzzle

in passing. Flirtation with

wayward eucalypts.

Originally a teacher from Saskatchewan, Allan Lake has lived in Vancouver, Cape Breton Island, Ibiza, Tasmania, Perth and Melbourne. His first collection, Tasmanian Tiger Breaks Silence, was published in Tasmania in 1988 and his second, Sand in the Sole, came out in 2014. In 2015 Lake won the Elwood Poetry Prize.