Beyond the slap and punch of the breakers
I arrived at that wide rolling calm
where strangers swap stories
between the fall and rise of the horizon.
A boogie-boarder told me of a wave
right here at Whiritoa
that had curled like a tongue
over the flaming lozenge of the sun.
The way he described it:
a spiritual collision,
the golden vortex,
sunset roaring at the tube’s exit.
He flippered into a ride and I hung out the back
considering each moment
until the ocean spat me forward
into a complicated morning.
Standing on the shore
I found my breath
and thought of you,
the sheer terror of your neckline.
First published in Byline 2015: An Anthology of Poetry and Prose from Tauranga Writers.
See also:
What holds the world together
Women of the attractive planet