Saturday August 26 Figueria da Foz

By | 1 February 2019
When you see the subsiding sun

lip and slip the west’s salty hip

only those who have not kissed

will not move their tongue

and remember.


Only those who have not lost

will turn away before that

last ecstatic slide

has take this night’s last light.


And those lost will grieve

so deep within their coil

that their tongue is struck

recoiled.


And for those who hold

of course your world is bold

and the leaving sun

 a mere slipped disc

and the night a mild serenade.


Oh leaving light

remember that I

was last to remove my gaze.


And if you return

I may turn away

your arrival no match for your leaving.


You saw not my eye

as I saw yours,

you’ve seen it all before

but I, dying light,

kept my eyes where you left

the world this day

and my life.
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Bruce Pascoe is of Bunurong, Yuin, Tasmanian heritage. He is a board member of First Languages Australia. Past Secretary Bidwell-Maap Aboriginal Nation. published and edited Australian Short Stories magazine1982-1999, was winner Australian Literature Award (Shark) 1999, Radio National Short Story 1998, FAW Short Story 2010, Prime Minister’s Award for Literature (Yong Adult) 2013, NSW Premier’s Book of the Year, Dark Emu, 2016. His books include Night Animals, Fox, Ruby Eyed Coucal, Shark, Ocean, Earth, Bloke, Cape Otway, Convincing Ground, Little Red Yellow and Black Book, Fog a dox and Dark Emu. Dark Emu the history of Aboriginal agriculture was published in 2014 and was shortlisted in the Victorian and Queensland Literature awards and won the NSW Premier’s book of the Year, 2016. Sea Horse, young adult novel, Magabala 2015, Mrs Whitlam, YA, 2016. He lives in Gipsy Point, Far East Gippsland with, Lyn Harwood. Two children, three grandchildren.

More by Bruce Pascoe on Cordite Poetry Review →

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