One story and the other" by Sarah Broom, 1972 - 2013
My stomach churns like stormwater
running to the sea
and in the wake of the storm
I am strewn with debris.
*
When you look at me
with that innocent face,
as artless as the full moon,
as simple as the round
of cream at the top
of those old glass bottles –
then I forget
your other side,
the veiled moon,
the averted head,
the shuttered eyes.
*
This afternoon the harbour
was still and sultry
only the white butterflies
carried on their dance,
their frantic, balletic pairings
everything else was overcome
but then when I swam
in the too warm sea
the current was strong –
twenty seconds on my back,
staring at the clouds,
and the jetty was a good
long swim away –
twenty minutes
and I’d have crossed the bar.
*
.
© Sarah Broom, 2013
.
From: Gleam by Sarah Broom, Auckland University Press, 2013
Reproduced on The Tuesday Poem Hub with permission.
running to the sea
and in the wake of the storm
I am strewn with debris.
*
When you look at me
with that innocent face,
as artless as the full moon,
as simple as the round
of cream at the top
of those old glass bottles –
then I forget
your other side,
the veiled moon,
the averted head,
the shuttered eyes.
*
This afternoon the harbour
was still and sultry
only the white butterflies
carried on their dance,
their frantic, balletic pairings
everything else was overcome
but then when I swam
in the too warm sea
the current was strong –
twenty seconds on my back,
staring at the clouds,
and the jetty was a good
long swim away –
twenty minutes
and I’d have crossed the bar.
*
.
© Sarah Broom, 2013
.
From: Gleam by Sarah Broom, Auckland University Press, 2013
Reproduced on The Tuesday Poem Hub with permission.
the complete poem and more at Tuesday Poem
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