Halcyon
When the vessels of the day break
and the scent of night pervades the dusk
we’ll gather in the glade and dance
amongst the shade, the stones, the musk
Dark’s soft blanket, in spreading we will greet
the march of time with onslaught swift
make shadows thick, the flower to dust
and in joy comes glory; an embrace, replete
Dawn’s arrival reveals fragile, silent grace
dark dismissed again to rest awhile
in briar-strewn thickets, a smile
like light itself, plays wild upon your face
We go gently back, through valleys of the morn
dual footfalls in the dust we tread
amidst chords of chaos, a single thread
unbeckoned swiftly, forward, born
ENCOUNTER WITH A SHARK(?), CUDGEN:
A tough call this one. The waves are late afternoon perfect and breaking on the outside banks. The reef is contorting and twisting. Exploding jets of pluming spray. A bank down from the reef is creating smooth righthanders. No one out. No one on the beach. No one in any of the car parks. Light rain and an unusual slight sea mist. Glass. If this were
Paddle across the gutter, and start scratching. Get caught badly inside by a set. There is an odd aroma heavy on the water, acrid. Keep ducking and paddling, and just make it out. Let a set go past and gather bearings. Glance across at the reef and watch it drain and throw, tide way too low.
Look back at the beach, and just as the eyes swivel back around to the horizon something BIG comes out of the water. As it lazily breaks the surface, it twists over onto its side, before neatly disappearing. Twenty metres inside of me and over two hundred metres out from the sand, I scream like a little girl. Adrenalin courses like never, ever before in any situation. Scramble for a little one, clutching at straws. Ride in and prone out, arms flailing like windchimes in a storm.
The water takes on a nightmarish black hue, and the wave peters out. Forty metres of gutter, deep gutter, and now the fear really starts. Convulsions sweep my body, almost bucking me off my board. Gibbering like a child, a petrified child. I hit the beach and don’t stop running until I’m by my car. I know the meaning of fear.