Kit Kelen #380 - under it

380

under it

down there

two on a raft

really an anchor

poling back to mother boat

they had to be fixing something

a minute of tugging, back on board

fisherfolk – as if the water were another age

colour of the river and sky too these

you see the boat once had a bit of blue

it's all mud now

white thing's the egret to stand through the tide

is it from the future I type?

piles of sand

and gravel

and cranes across the river

they must be putting something up

over the border

the soldiers trot march

they have a recording and speakers to urge them

my flat is a view out over the border

and far out to islands

when the smog is light

that's not today

light days have become rarer and rarer

we see breathe through a steady haze

on our side

the security guard in his box

over the wall

freeway tears by

mine's the tower of power

with rector on top

knowledge spread out like a garden below

rule of so many here

heaven's over

river runs

the factories

and the traffic

pour on

even unseen

a little boat takes the river across

the one I can't take – Loane to Wankam

so few the ferry

so close across

one wishes one could walk

but the border's between

with its shouting guards

with its recordings of shouting guards

on my side Macao police cruise by

and pause under a tree

wait to see if any will come over the wall

to give us their money today

the clock beyond them strikes

as if 9

on the radio

which is really a tablet

(I say this merely to resist product placement)

the ABC news tells me twelve

hard to know which I should

choose to believe

can't see the web under

but swim to be home

is how a river runs

must be a problem

with the anchor

the two on the raft

are back poling again

mud for as far

as the eye can see