Cameron Griffiths

The ledge
For Matthew Crawford

Black and green mountains peel off
like waves;
shadows absorb every movement.
Track across broken stones;
crack through piles of driftwood
bleached white as bones,
blades of dried skin-like kelp.
In shallow channels
seaweed clutches at feet.
Further out, where the sea sucks at the shelf,
a man was pulled under.
Sombre words swirl in streams;
petals stripped from stems
fall and drift.
White crests take bites from the sky.
A small Kahawai,
by turns green and blue,
is stranded in a tidal pool.
The swell that surges and spits
will soon swallow this hole.