lagoon #19

it’s hard to explain
the affinity

all around
are depressions in the ground
that have been
in the past
billabongs of the broken river

after it has flooded
water has occupied the low lying ground
creating sequences
of small lakes and ponds

all now empty

but for this one pool
that I pause to watch
and study

day after day
sometimes at intervals of weeks
I compare what I see now
with what was
at my last passing

the shrinkage
the fish
heron ducks and mudlarks

the insect boatmen
and random rising bubbles

I almost want to embrace
the whole shallow catastrophe

but instead
I measure the shrinkage
and wonder
when will floods return

what place will this be
when all the billabongs
are full
and the river
is less broken

---

© Frank Prem, 2006

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