for joaly


the river

stained my shorts

brackish white cracks

              caked mud
an overturned chair in

the cascade of the

slow              rapids
in water he moves

like a seal

on land he oscillates

              / osculates 
mud is slow

nothing brief
mosquito larva at

the edge

question their role

in the ecological whole
there is a body

of water

between us
a gulf

a bay              a river

a seasonal creek
refrigerated butter

warming in the day
a single cockatoo

no spectacular flock

nothing to force seeing

beauty

white on blue and white
body oils

sit deep	in the mud
our feet

press oxygen

into the river bed
could i have come

here on my own
we swim when the swimming

needs swimming
loose leaf tea

sheets our backs

in alternates
your hands

now calloused and tanned

                – poet’s hands
dogs mingle

in our camp
stranger:

            ‘dog’s name! get out!’

   ‘come here!’

                                          ‘dog’s name! no!’

‘dog’s name!’
your body less perfect

and so, therefore,

in the water
the water now momentarily

clear

as nature turns

in our hands
the river carries

petrol and trout

each splitting light

into colours
rainbow rainbow
yet

we pluck feathers

from ourselves and other

birds
and sew some

into emptied

follicles 
in false plumes

we sink