-
SARAH DAY
-
Stranger
- I
- So much like a scene from any
tawdry police show
- it's hard to take seriously:
ambulance backed up to the dune path,
- the police van, men in uniform,
a couple of young women–
- pony tails and monkey
suits– the word Forensics blocked
- in semi-circle across their
shoulders, hands in pockets or on hips,
- looking like those who maintain
the roads at coffee time, relaxed,
- on the job, passing the time of
day.
- Tucked away behind the vans,
half out of the frame, just enough
- to inspire some mystery, the
foot of a stretcher.
- Only when beach-goers approach,
does the nonchalance
- tighten, postures still on
casual though, indicating with elbow,
- an alternate route to the beach.
-
- II
- As skies darken over the sea,
colours of clothing come to light
- on the grey, vacant beach, as if
outlined, like the shouts and laughter of children.
- You wonder if the tide will rise
high enough for the sea to meet the creek,
- ushering bore waves one by one
upstream against the flow, along the brackish
- surface. One of the children
walks away from the water, spooked by a coiled snake
- blanching beneath the surface.
The adults cannot let go of the scene
- in the car-park; curiosity or
apprehension draws them in a huddle.
- The horizon is unfailingly
straight. A Southerly lays bare pipis, cones
- and Chinese fingernails; rustles
the lupins in the dunes like cicadas.
- At the end of the day, an image
persists: of the thin snake whitening on the creek bed,
- and the expressions on the faces
of the emergency officers.
- You wonder if you feel too much,
or too little, for the death of strangers.
-
Sarah Day was born
In England in 1958 and migrated to Australia with her family in the mid sixties. Her fifth
and most recent book, The Ship (Brandl & Schlesinger) won the Queensland
Premier’s Award for poetry, the Melbourne University Michel Wesley Wright Award and
was joint winner of the ACT Awards. Before that, New & Selected Poems was
published by Arc in UK. It was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Awards. She lives in
Hobart with her family. This year she is working on her sixth book with the assistance of
an Australia Council grant.
|