snowglow, crave

by Luka Venter

her feet cleave the ice from itself	     	
               weight of each foot lowering itself 
 in its slow intractable curve against the surface		
                                            	    		of 	the snow 				

                      As she				
                                      runs 
                                      crystalline fibres 	cling to her skin the membrane of the body 	
                                                                                        and the heat of that body for a 	               second 	

causes 	                 a hot
                                       slow
                                       burn 	
                                       a slow 		release 	a slow 
                                       melt		of one thing 

                                                                                        into another	
                                        running like electricity runs through hair

quickening and protracted and quickening through 
what 	must be 	evening by now 	though lit white 
in silence and 	into a quicksilver  change  		

the sun 		pierces like a chemical nerve run through 
		with a silver needle	         I watch her run 	

I think I watch her		
I imagine 	her movement		

                      the long light 		
                                       particles 		bending themselves 	
                                                                                        towards new light

                                                                                       her plasma against snow as		
                                                                                       her particles bend themselves 

                                                                                       towards movement

I watch her run	and all I can do is
                                            imagine 		her movement	
	                      will		her movement		towards 	new  light

Luka Venter (they/them) is a poet and composer/conductor from Te Whanganui-ā-Tara. Their creative practice thrives the intersections between things (us and te taiao – the deep past and the Anthropocene). They studied at the IIML + hold an MA in Opera Making and Writing from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and their writing has been published in anthologies by Poetry Live and featured in the Verb Festival.