Reception Down

untamed dark air
flowing across the night windows
rippling into the mouth
of our rumbling heat-pump
that labours to filter out
the scent of ice
on hedgehog spike
the musk of wind
on frozen reeds
the taste of steam
rising like a ballet
from the dark waters
while we wander dreaming
the atmosphere is swept
of outliers
of irregularities
of bristling pheromones
floating like sea mines
deleted messages
trying to reach us

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Chris Parsons is a Christchurch writer whose work appears online and in print in various places including Blackmail Press, Landfall, Poetry New Zealand Yearbook, Shot Glass Review, Southerly and takahē.