by Kate Maxwell
Below, but not too far from breath
and sky, cloistered
in the briny nave of ocean’s vast cathedral,
warm-blooded beasts sleep
in arcs of vertical silence.
Colossal monuments,
mysterious as Salisbury’s standing stones
—their huge heavy heads
still, beneath lapping line of dome
and sea where god’s sigh
over waters deemed dominion
yet served no shield from arrogance
above. They sleep,
perchance to dream,
one eye open, one half conscious
to continued breath, too close teeth,
vessel’s leak of earth’s black
spills or sudden shot of spear
and sway
below swells of shifting surface,
unbroken for now as their semi-slumber,
legion of deistic dreamers,
or smoothness of the ocean floor.
Sad songs quiver through the deep
to moan the sacking
of their holy places
from those who rock and reel above
in big and little boats,
drill holes in subterranean seas,
cetacean’s spines, throw death
and plastic into coral gardens,
make chase with harpoons and binoculars,
cast nets and nets and nets,
until sometimes
these huge prophets sigh their last
pondering if death, too, delivers
mournful dreams. We watch
slow tide formations line the weeping
shore with a waste to rival
our best destructions.
But today, not too far from breath
and sky, in walls of water,
thick with tiny life
and swimming things that glide
or drift in glorious hush,
slicing aqua shadows or billowing
through dancing seaweed,
these blubber-built pillars
pointed to forever in immaculate
suspension, sleep
where only muted psalms of sea,
the pulse and pound
of sonic prayer
suffuse this liquid sanctuary.
A faith I’d surely follow,
if only I could fill my lungs
with more than blight and bitterness,
immerse my breath
and sink my heart
into these songs of deep belief.
___
Kate Maxwell was raised on the red dust plains near Wee Waa, Australia. Now, a city dweller, her interests include film, wine, and sleeping. She’s been published and awarded in many Australian and International literary magazines. Her first poetry anthology, Never Good at Maths (IP Press) was published in 2021, and her second anthology (Ginninderra Press) will be forthcoming in 2023. She can be found at https://kateswritingplace.com/