Water

By | 1 September 2013

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

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