Jan Hutchison
Eye Ward
All night the woman in the next bed
whispers to herself
as if her own sounds were ushering
her through the darkness.
She smudges, wishes, kisses
a vision on to a tissue of air.
Sleep, sleep, little woman.
Through the window, a willow
veils the river.
Jan Hutchison lives in Christchurch and a third collection of her poems, The Happiness of Rain, has been accepted by Steele Roberts for the near future. Her poems have appeared in New Zealand Books, Quadrant, Takahē and other publications.