Behind me
Where we camp beside the sea
they are catching octopi
that start as lime dots in inky darkness
drawn with bait to the light
I want to stay here, wait for love
to heal in an unfolding summer
but it is time to change my colour,
ignore the real red lure, walk
away through the pistachio trees
and over the ridge of the island
I know when the fishermen bash
the creatures on rocks one hundred
times that it is over. I watch them rub
the flesh with sea water until
tenderised, the sun burning yellow.
Behind me, pink catchfly hems
the tops of ruddy cliffs, and trees
of mourning bridge the gap
between worlds. The bodies hang
drying like knotted shirts on lines
and beyond them, I remember
vivid pelagic blue endlessness
Jane Frank’s latest chapbook is Wide River (Calanthe Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared most recently in Westerly, Plumwood Mountain, StylusLit, Shearsman, Burrow, Meridian, Social Alternatives, Grieve vol 9 (Hunter Writers Centre, 2021), Not Very Quiet: The Anthology (Recent Work Press, 2021), Poetry for the Planet (Litoria Press, 2021) and The Incompleteness Book II (Recent Work Press, 2021). She was recently shortlisted for both The Newcastle Poetry Prize 2021 and Takahe’s Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2021. In March 2021, Jane was a Feature Poet at StAnza International Poetry Festival (St. Andrews, Scotland). Originally from the Fraser Coast region, Jane now lives in Brisbane and teaches in Humanities at Griffith University. Read more of her work at https://www.facebook.com/JaneFrankPoet/ and https://janefrankpoetry.wordpress.com/
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