Sunday 19 June 2016

Rachael Boast: Sandpipers


How easy it is to imitate
the sandpipers,
their breasts the same colour 
as the breaking waves

so you'll not see
how I've done this,
but consider it the outcome
of my being off-set
against the same mirrored cuff
of the North Sea
that belongs to you,
but cannot belong to me

it all happens so quickly,
and to watch these creatures
who without consciousness of self
inhabit eternity, is as closely
aligned as we'll ever be

so when I've left, remember me
by how light they are
on their legs

how they look at you
with a tilted head.


From Sidereal (2011). The poet looks at herself (mirrored in the sea) and wants to coexist in both human and animal consciousness. Which is a very common thread in animal poems that are actually about the human observers.

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