Late walk along Jerusalem Inlet
Rows of trees knee-deep in brackentrunks green with soft mossall dead or dyinga shovel shaped pitthe sound of watersome Mirkwood pathto a wide green placewhere a house wasall ruinedbroken rocks and bricks,beside the broken oak tree,a non-allegorical snake.
The Stations of the Stairs
Beneath the new stairsthat rise from the beach,the shallow cries or calls of childrenand the floating lovers,the old remain blurredand bowed, instantly acquiringan archaeological air.
These constructionsrise in stages like Apollowith platforms for viewingor resting, the saltprickling at your backarriving at last at a higherif less sanctified place.
Low tide, Norman Bay
This isn't a place to talk about death,the tide falling, thin peakscrumbling in a light onshore,the light fading too,though the waves in the cornerare still that aqua colourthat makes them look tropical,the beach is as wide as everSkull Island holds the horizon.
The light is falling away with the tidebut the dark shapes are birds going somewherethe bubbles in the sandsmall breaths rising into the air
When we eat together
When we eat togetheraround this flat altarwe place the foodbetween us,and before us.
Something stopsfor a timein this ritualthe purpose of whichto bring ustogether againrenewed
Them as visitors
They move unsurely at firstthrough this redistribution of effects,flop finally into the familiar family couchre-cast here to appease us all.
And we cluster around the new tableas if the old wood, reshaped, shrunken, could recall other tableaus,things we did together, in the continuity of cutlery.
They eat quickly, then want to go,'we're empty nesters' one says to the otheras we walk them to their carsand watch them drive away.
And we walk back together in silence down the darkening driveway, to this re-shaped shelter,the dry husks of strange seedscrackling under our feet.
Warrick Wynne is a Melbourne poet and teacher who has been published widely in Australia. He has three published books of poetry, most recently 'The State of the Rivers and Streams'.