cell

cell
written when love’s proud tower
was crumbling down
sydney, 1998

Greek Fishing Boat by Gregory Kondos sourced from Artnet, with all kudos and acknowledgements to the artist for use of his craft.

island of
white squares
shuttered windows
cells of windward
dreaming

i have a hut
split stone stacked
on stone to make
walls
low roof
on the hill ridged
against sea

dawn i give thanks
for this
broken free of a world
whose sense i never
possessed
a way that
led me
nowhere

a sky
sketched in
with blue light
as dark pencil
on drawing paper
stars deeper on
and fading
i drift into
dawn a blue
hull gunwales
slung like a
hammock
prow to
bow*

i do this
every time i
get through night
and wake there
nights i fail
i return to
this corner
the misunderstanding
of doors closing
inward or out

i admit
i swear to sky
i’ve never
woken there
i will
i will

*the traditional greek craft, with the stern and bow shaped the same

Copyright©2022 Peter Le Baige.  All Rights Reserved.

The music accompanying the reading is from a performance of New Zealand Greek composer John Psathas’s ‘Voices at the End’, a presentation of the 2021 Auckland Arts Festival & recorded here by SOUNZ Centre for NZ Music.