I have three poems in this Anthology of Australian Poetry, published by Bonfire Books. One of them is this one.
The book is available from https://bonfirebooks.org/product/anthology-of-australian-verse-2023/
Testimony of One of Sir John Franklin’s Officers
When I was a child I was promised the ocean:
a trip to the coast, so we rode down to Hastings.
The clouds sagged like a dirty tarpaulin.
The waves rattled the shingle. The sun
bradawled a hole though drifting grays
to spotlight the place where sea became sky.
Nanny’s screams were baffled by the wind
but shifting pebbles under stubby legs
betrayed me to strong hands before the water’s edge.
Not safe, not saved, restrained. Returned
to Nanny where I howled. Her voice:
You big girl’s blouse: big boys don’t cry.
I have forgotten much; first this, first that;
things I should remember. But I do not forget
the sea and the sky and the line where they met;
or that need to stand where the light fell
and peer over the edge of the world.
