Off the Baths

Collaroy 1958.......

Straight after Sunday school

The boys' swimming club's

Been cancelled.  Surf's up!

King Tide - says it all.

Land locked, my feet itch on the concrete steps.

Scraping see-weed

Scours the red rock underlay

And chokes the frothing foreshore.

A sea snake turns to bite an unbeliever.

The dry-retching surf

Rocks grey-green

From the sandy floor.

Stopped by the concrete wall

The heaving waves

Spit and spray

Against the chains.

The children scream with joy

And fall to safety

Into the pool below,

Pretending  danger.

A storm in their tea cup.

Only the craziest will go out

To crack that bombora

But the pull is irresistible

And with an audience like that.

They take their leaden boards

Their Malibu now magnetized

And go in

- off the baths.

First published in the Winter Edition of Five Bells, 2008 - the magazine of the Poets Union Inc., Australia.