---
title: "Safari"
url: "https://ruthocallaghan.com/poems/safari"
updated: 2026-10-12
description: "\"Safari\", a poem by Ruth O'Callaghan from An Unfinished Sufficiency."
---

# Safari

I have left linen bleaching in a white sun\
by an inlet with its slack of winter water

where a heron breaks free from brittle light.\
Skin tightened with cold desires the code

of touch. Unregarded, the curvature of trees\
bears the mark of previous snows, grass

shrivelled, the earth bitten: winter-ravenous.\
Winter-ravenous, I will arrive: my feet bare.

_From An Unfinished Sufficiency (Salmon Poetry, 2015)_