oh

Adrift on a shallow insomnia
I am lapped by a message
from the deep – your body
is an open letter. 
O
I am wooden, a kind
of thrumming
all through me, nerves
singing.           I have signed
the petition
I have turned down
the offer          I have tied
myself to the mast.     
I am a forest
and every tree a bracket
of missing words
I think I know [tired
though].           Every move
I make
is a trespass    
no one is watching.
Between the trees        I travel
like snow, an open
letter
melting before [                      ]

nerves a tight
song. 

Anna Jackson

Anna Jackson’s Pasture and Flock: New and Selected Poems (Auckland University Press, 2018) gathers together poems from seven previous collections, along with 25 new poems. She recently released Actions and Travels, a book on poetry (Auckland University Press, 2022). She also edited the AUP New Poets series from Volume 5 to Volume 9. She is based in Wellington.