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

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.