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  • Last dip of the year
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Last dip of the year

Ian Abbot

Her body was as shy as berries when she stepped
as neatly as a hind out of the bush
she had unrobed in.

And stood there trembling on the edge
above the careless water, summoning
her little courage for the cold plunge.

Till at length she jumped, and folded
all her innocence
into the clear hands of the river.

Her tiny, berry-crimson breasts flared out
like signals from the cool depths, warning
of another season’s turning and the spates to come.


Ian Abbot

from Finishing the Picture: collected poems (Edinburgh: Kennedy & Boyd, 2015)

Reproduced by permission of the Estate of Ian Abbot

Tags:

innocence nakedness swimming water
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Ian Abbot1947 - 1989

Ian Abbot was born in Perth in 1947, and worked in agricultural jobs to support his writing. One book of poetry was published before his early death in a car accident, but a collected poems appeared in 2015.
More about Ian Abbot

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