Saying Farewell

Memories I Have Never Had of the Maramasike Passage

After this bay, lagoon, gulf …

we approach the confining arc

of trees reaching, clasping.

The passage seems to be

at times

sunstruck then

cool, dark.

We enter

gliding through clear waters,

aware of special peace

undisturbed even

by tidal currents –

they must sweep both ways?

The banks –

closing now –

might offer glimpses

of anything …

perhaps parrots cavorting amongst dark leaves,

a cradled possum, a crocodile

or an abandoned canoe.

We have heard

of people

snatched by tides.

Through it sunstruck through

the cool and dark, through

the more or less dappled

ordinary we sail

the legendary passage.

Shadow lizards dash

water music brushes our ears

for a moment

from the dark

a splash of dancing light

falling from leaf along bough

to glimmer in water.

We are drawn along

between the banks,

the helmsman hardly has to steer.

Our interest forward wavers

in any case

there is no future.