salt lake & sandhill
white on white seamless
under white in blue
fading into white
full as suckling breasts
dunes mound against sky
invite the touch &
scrub stains their flanks
clefts darker
in muted cycle
tides ease in ease out
scribble flotsam
along the shore
ti trees cluster
tuft green above white
against white
twist & tangle
bark in strips in stripes
& herons rise from sandbars
their wings grey
as her eyes
in autumn
drifts of cockleshells
each their echo
cup & fan
curve over curve
simple as love
but like love also
some in shards
whispers at evening
wind sibilant in sand
sifting over sand
bits of seaweed skitter
strand in samphire
carrion stinks
the crows peck & tear
horizon a wheel of salt
of sand of sea of sky of
cloud of white on white
Author's Note: Coorong is a national park in South Australia, where the Southern Ocean and the Murray River have got behind some towering sand hills on the southern coast of Australia, creating a long peninsula and almost unique world of sand and sea. It's about 120km southeast of Adelaide.
Lighthouse in the Coorong National Park, South Australia