WALK TO HAYS INLET
Sublet to the sea:
watch a zoetrope of tide (with small
aluminum boats) wash up
against your confidence
if you have the time to stay and watch
alone can bring — the salt-surrounded
tree you photograph is unreachable
but it indents itself
on the water are their own set of cells
here where you can find
the horizon through the outflung
arms of a dead gum
you were lost in the rumble
between bridges and chanced upon a man
releasing ashes from an urn
what you love most—
it’s as if the sea has moved in
watch a zoetrope of tide (with small
aluminum boats) wash up
against your confidence
if you have the time to stay and watch
There’s a bone deep acceptance
of a kind of beauty that only being alone can bring — the salt-surrounded
tree you photograph is unreachable
but it indents itself
on the brackish
enamel of Bramble Bay where tiny lightson the water are their own set of cells
here where you can find
the horizon through the outflung
arms of a dead gum
at the water’s edge,
everything makes more sense than when you were lost in the rumble
between bridges and chanced upon a man
releasing ashes from an urn
So often
now, there’s no one to witness what you love most—
it’s as if the sea has moved in
Jane Frank is a poet, editor and academic based in Brisbane. Her new collection Gardening on Mars will be published by Shearsman Books in October this year and previous collections Ghosts Struggle to Swim (2023) and Wide River (2020) are through Calanthe Press. Her work is widely published, most recently in The Mackinaw, Live Encounters and Poetry of Change: The Liquid Amber Prize Anthology. She lectures in the School of Business and Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast and is reviews editor at StylusLit.