Brisbane & Gold Coast

A zoo? Not really mine — never was.

But this one — the first place I have walked where animals were near enough to touch. Not large. And yet, somehow, wider.

Lawns rolling on and on, going gold with early autumn.

Sky blue. Clouds within reach.

Koalas. Kangaroos lazing, hopping wherever.

A lizard, fleeing. A sheep walking slowly. An ostrich, slower still.

And so — I, too, came to love the zoo.

If someone says they don't like zoos, that only means they have not yet found the one that belongs to them.

A first walk: from the far end of Miami Beach, all the way to the centre.

The light was kind. The people looked happy.

Sunlight on water, the smell of salt, dogs led at the heels of their owners, runners passing through. A few of us — travellers — threading among them.

Moment folding into moment. Lives brushing, briefly, against lives.

An hour that felt like a gift. I thought, a month. I could give a month to this place.