thanks for this glorious reminder of summer
comments in text
Terri )O(

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Faust" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 8:46 AM
Subject: Sub - sabres at patterson river


> (1)
> a flotilla of flat-bottomed sabres
> red triangled teeth atop the white of a single sail
> forty strong and tacking     tightly bunched
> with just one straggler to the rear [wonderfully aggressive first 4 lines]
> and one that is running hard to port and pointing
> at my piece of floury yellow sand [lovely]
> marked out as personal territory by towel and book [good shift to pedantic
homeliness]
> and the clear blue overlay of cloudless sky [do you get these down under?
huh!]
>
> (2)
> I have waited these three slow-passing months
> of damp and lukewarm pseudo-summer [you should try the UK]
> for such a day of unambiguous stinging heat
> the salt water is already autumn sharp
> a rapid-cooling contrast to the dry tem[p]erature
> rising from carpark bare beach above water level [carpark bare? a bit
confusing]
> [but] the slap of small-wave motion -
> enough to force the awkwardness of walking on tip-toes
> with every rise in depth towards the nethers -
> is worth enduring for the clean freshness
> of first submergence and aquatic acclimatisation
>
> (3)
> the wind is on the rise     the water[ less inviting] [bit boring]
> sabre teeth are bare poles and singing metal lines [good description]
> pulled up before the training clubrooms and above high tide
> various parties are packing up and going home
> despite forty five degrees of sun remaining before curtain fall
> on this Patterson River of powder-sand     gulls
> and boats returning to the river mouth channel in search of berthing
> trailing a bright and silver shiver on the water
> to reflect the last remnants of a Sunday on the bay [not sure this line
bears the weight of all the above?]
>
> ~
>
> Frank
>
> The Tales of Faust poetry page can be found at:
> http://www.hotkey.net.au/~flp/F_index.htm
>
>
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