Anna Couani #146 Pacific

swimming on the edge of the Pacific
from the headland above
a smooth cream curve
with the city behind

thinking locally
then submarinely
your eyes stingingly open
the sandy water churned
by the rolling breakers

scanning for the next wave
even seeing a curvature
salt-like grains of sand
whipping past in time
outgoing swell
thinking
Pacific

a vast concave bubble
a big brain

body surfing beaches up and
down the east coast

swimming in the balmy transparent
waters
of Oahu
watching the hotel lights reflected
in the waters of Waikiki

Queensland
days and days of beach
and a million conversations

walking through the rainforest canyons
the beach where the forest
meets the sand

up beyond Cairns
near Cape Tribulation
the Daintree as seen by Jeannie Baker
her collages dense on top of the scene of
the lighthouse
the swirls on the sand
from the crocodiles that come out at dusk

the artificial lagoon in Cairns at dawn
silvery and aqua
lit from within
up there
foreign and still familiar

our Pacific, natural, opalescent, southern
mother to islands
glittering in the sunshine
framed by palms

the cities
twinkling
San Francisco

I stand in my classroom
looking into the faces of
Pacific people
talk question debate

Guangzhou Shanghai

sit on the step
with the teacher
from Macao

chat

here we have Port Jackson figs
gigantic ficus
holding the shore together