This Day--By Maureen Sudlow--New Zealand

This Day

Red berries on the deck
among the rattling swords
of the Nikau.

Sun-warmed wind
soft on my skin.

The shifting Paulownia leaves
painting shadow patterns
over the pebbles
with gentle hand claps.

Sound of birds
and a distant truck
winding up the hill.
Somewhere a dog barks.

In this sun, this wind, this day
I remember you.

Maureen and her husband Rod live in Dargaville in the Kaipara (New Zealand). Maureen has had poetry published both on-line and in magazines such as A Fine Line, and has recently published her first poetry collection Antipodes. She has a Diploma in Creative Writing from Whitireia, and was short-listed for the 2012 Joy Cowley Award for her children’s picture book Fearless Fred and the Dragon.