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The officer who drove her home (no siren, no flashing lights) walks around the police car to open the passenger door. He offers his arm, escorts her along the bewildering pathway. At the porch steps she stops, slides her arm from his, turns, sweetly confused, leans her wrinkled cheek against his uniformed chest. He steadies her, a gentle touch of elbow. She wobbles up on tip-toe, bestows a goodnight kiss below his ear. The officer knows there’s nothing much there , the old dear’s all musty lavender, faced lace and stained seams. Empty space. She’s lost it. He bears the intimacy with gallant grace. The man weeping in the open doorway at the top of the steps knows she hasn’t forgotten everything She’s remembering long ago when it was he who brought her home from the local dance and, eager for a last kiss before her father opened wide the villa door and spilled harsh light on their shy goodnight, she’d stood on tip-toe, face aglow, uplifted, waiting for his touch. Dunedin Library Poetry CompetitionWinner Congratulations to Elizabeth Brooke-Carr, the winner of the Dunedin Public Libraries Changing Minds Poetry Competition held in Dunedin in August 2019. The topic of the competition was “memories lost and found” and was a partnership between the Neurological Foundation and Dunedin Public Libraries. Below is the winning poem by Elizabeth Brooke-Carr who sadly passed away on the 3 September 2019. Harsh light by Elizabeth Brooke-Carr Headlines 3