Signal

The crossing signal twitches

like it’s filled with hot

crickets

and they whisper

touch touch touch

and so you reach out

press the cold metal button

press the cold metal

just to say:

I’m here,

I’m here, please,

let me cross safely.

 
Aimee-Jane Anderson-O’Connor was awarded the 2018 Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Prize, and the 2017 Monash Prize for Emerging Writers. Her poem ‘Instructions’ was named by The Spinoff as the best poem of 2018. Her work has appeared in a number of literary journals, including Starling, Mayhem, Poetry New Zealand, Landfall, Mimicry, Turbine, and Min-a-rets. She writes thanks to some of the best people on this great watery rock.