I'm in-between tides

Growing up

I visited the beach

more as a visitor

rather than resident

as a break from the cow yard

and chook egg chores

I'm in-between tides

waves shaping the coastline

Early career

was the time for the city

a beach awash with possibilities 

lost in a concrete jungle

I wandered until dizzy

the external clatter so loud

I moved on before I shattered

I'm in-between tides

I dared to look beyond the horizon

Travelling East over waters

tropical sea waters

language shaping all interactions

learning was breathing

I followed the tides

with paddle and boat

I'm in-between tides

Marriage was a promise

to another landscape

a desire for a witness

daily, intimate and close

no telling of ecological change

or what bush fires would reveal

I'm in-between tides

all footprints covered

Motherhood

the dissolution of self

to create another

then the revealing of new scenery

the (re)discovery of self

and the new being

I'm in-between tide marks

On a stony beach

Red desert offerings

an oasis available

lives adjusted to a new pace 

strange yet familiar

my scarcity is nothing

 

I'm in-between tides

no timetable could show

Separation is a journey

into new territorial maps

I hold my ground 

providing a rock 

for my child

school and self-discovery

I'm in-between tides

thresholds announcing exits

Today is a dawn of a new journey

journeys start at dawn

shifting sands are halted

water scraping over bleached coral

the tide turning seaweed

into miniature movable artworks

I'm in-between tides

salted and laid in brine

Now the turning tides 

mirror the stars on black seas

relentless waves wiping seagull prints

as the sound of the sunrise

silently ebbs away night 

shells emptied of living host

shed a last watery gasp

I'm in-between tides