EPILOGUE OF A
ROMANCE
Narcissus
camellia
prunus
three flowers
of spring
the Chinese said
symbols of new
life
new beginnings.
They ate plums
the deep wine
fruit
oozing upon the
lips.
She carried daffodils
dripping with
bridal creeper.
He wore a pink
camellia
in his lapel.
When winter struck
baring the branches
of the plum
he was living
with a divorcee
in Joondalup.
She had gone
home to mother.
Published now
at
http://www.7beats.com/herenow.html
1960 – 1999
1960 – The bay curved around the coast
like a crescent moon
where my mother and father fished
while we
paddled in the water.
Around the bay
the bush hugged the sand dunes.
We dived into the sea
chasing the sea-stars
from their hiding places
while the white faced heron watched.
1999 – At night
the lights of tankers
twinkle in reply to the lights
thickly ringing the bay.
A wind comes from the south
filling the senses
with pristine sea and white ice.
The waves roll in
hiding the conduit
transferring land waste to the sea.
My children go wet suited
to search the sea of my childhood.
They return.
The sea-stars have vanished
from the rocks under the sea
and the white-faced heron
has gone from the shore.
