Dawn over Sandy Bay

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jethro's picture

Cold predawn light filtered through gumtree leaves
Rocky shoreline interrupting marching
Inexorable lines of crashing waves
Muted birdsong heralding a new day

Eyes straining extracting details from gloom
Watercolour scene reminiscent of
Billabongs surrounded by smoky fires
Damper cooking alongside Billy tea

Digital technology has no place
Unrelenting forces of wind and waves
A millennia of repetition
Civilization made a mockery

How many humans have stood and listened
Footprints just temporary impressions
While capturing visual moments of time
Diversity of shared recollections

Do experiences create the scene
Or does the scene script the experience
Oral traditions of past memories
Tiny shards of shattered recollections

Rocky outcrops hold distant memories
Beyond transient homo sapiens
Brief excursions amongst ancient beings
Force perspective of our place in this world

Giant ghost gums add their rustling whispers
Foliage doomed in an endless cycle
Sprouting and blossoming only to fall
Trod underfoot and remembered no more

Will the memories of my lifetime here
People and places and things I hold dear
Matter one whit in six months or a year
Does anyone notice or even care

Of what import are words of love and care
The universe makes it brutally clear
Two souls intertwined whose pathways are shared
Does true love exist to just disappear

Are rocks and trees cognizant of humans
Meandering briefly through their landscape
Ignoring their longevity as we
Crash like waves that are remembered no more

Cosmic repercussions of two lovers
Declaring thoughts aloud into the air
Waveforms of sound now historically there
Imbued into the weave of time and space

Aeons of history pivot on this
Singular expression breathed into life
Daring the universe to object to
The daring impertinence that is l

Two souls tread lightly through ancient forests
Dance over pebbled shores glistening with
Transient foam blissfully unaware
Their actions have altered reality

Poem written 19 November 2023 by Tim Miller