Poem: After the Bloom

After the Bloom

After the news reports and citizen science photos

of floppy white rays and pink-mouthed sharks

after the cockle cobble-stoned beach is swept

by tide after tide and the frothy brown stain

moves to another beach, someone has to sniff

the air to gauge the cough factor, to walk

a dog and pull a lead tight to stop it mouthing

dried husks and stinking fish. Someone has to

tell their children not to touch, and explain

why they can’t drag the pipi rake and wiggle hips

to scoop a cache of glistening pink pipis.

After the algal bloom, a fisherman has to don

a Bunnings apron and wind up metres of net,

sell their father’s boat and see green rubber pants

swaying like a hanged man on a hook in the shed.

Someone has to count what’s left, snorkel or dive

into a murky graveyard, choke back grief behind goggles

and photograph the carnage like a war reporter.

After the bloom moves on, someone has to describe

to their children the synchronised fish dances

sideways hustle of crabs, the carpet-patterned fiddlers

and green scarfed leafy sea dragons; to open books

and YouTube and show them what once was.

New holiday makers will walk our beaches

speak of the pristine sand, no weeds, no shells

How pure, they might say. Perhaps the sandy white

fringe girdling Australia will be wiped clear

and the scent of rotting seaweed and fishy air

be just a memory in a grandparent’s nostril.

Jude Aquilina’s poetry and short fiction, along with a number of book collections have seen publication in numerous literary journals, anthologies and newspapers in Australia and overseas. A long-standing figure in Adelaide’s poetry scene, she has spoken at festivals around Australia, taught poetry and creative writing in schools and to adult groups, and advised and mentored both young and emerging poets. Living on the Fleurieu Peninsula’s south coast, Jude’s poem today has come from seeing there, the consequences of South Australia’s statewide devastating historic algal bloom.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.