And the coming night

They stayed with me all afternoon -
little girls scattered across the road like marbles
And the dead kangaroos
and the foxes
and the black and white smear of a magpie
sick and sad by the roadside.

The sun dipped low behind the tree-line;
I wound my window down
to the rising smell of Eucalyptus;
Heat still caught up in the spokes of the waning day

And I welcomed the moment
and whatever time was left -
the trees
and the dying sun
and the open window
and the coming night

And I thought how I would come home
and make frenzied, hungry love to you
because they had stayed with me all afternoon -
little girls scattered across the road like marbles,
and time was running thin.