Thanks for this Max. I know Williamstown area just a little, though not the
area perhaps you're writing of, but I did catch it through yr rewrite.
Cheers,
Jill
> Cruising and Checking
>
>
> Walking early at Portarlington
> you may check the wharf as I do,
> peeking in the anglersı empty buckets.
>
> One-man work-boats may catch your eye,
> in the full gold of first sunlight,
> cruising in - with their catch? -
>
> not that I can see, but, looking beyond,
> I realize these are mussel farmers
> back from checking future harvests.
>
> As for the lone yacht moored near the beach,
> movement at its stern shapes to an inflatable,
> putt-putting towards us as boat, man and dog.
>
> Us in this case is me and my dog. In the shallows
> the yachtsman clambers out carrying his dog.
> Good mornings all round, human and canine.
>
> Yachtiesı dogs, first thing, we see,
> do need land for a good relieving squat
> this time, between us and the No Dogs sign.
>
> Yachtie and I enjoy a long slow yarn
> about the water, weather, climate, skies.
> Melbourne may be overcast for days,
>
> while out on the Bay itıs glorious and mild.
> Better than racing is just cruising: at
> Williamstown, say, you step from car to yacht,
>
> consulting the breeze on where to head,
> stepping ashore wherever you please.
> They putt-putt away. The beach is ours again;
>
> their image remains, our catch of the day.
>
> [snapped in prose '99, pub in glossy local mag, Coast&Country, then with
> artwork by colleague and friend Iain Topliss. His image we hope will be on
> the cover of my imminent verse collection, so I've now rejigged old prose
> into new verse]
>
> Max Richards
> Melbourne, 12 October 2005
Melbourne, 12 October 2005
|