(after Chris Marks)

sucking salt
and spilling syllables into the deep.
Imagine singing lyrics with the humpback
and the blue,
jiggling to their riff and thumping,
sinking subnotes, surfing flatlines of script.

Suppose every sentence
was a bond of molecules, every phrase
a wave, its ocular echosounder. Picture
the pulse and drag, how silence looks
when scribbled on horizons,
tropic lines. How would it be to surf
a cross-hatched graph of secret tangents

and vanishings. Imagine
casting nets into pigmented ink
catching alphabets encrusted with mussels,
limpets, barnacles of significance
and drift. Imagine cuddling a planet,
whispering in its ear.

Victoria McGrath

This is an ekphrastic poem inspired by a drawing of the same name by Chris Marks, held in the collection of the Nillumbik Shire Council, Victoria.

Victoria McGrath has been widely published in journals and anthologies in Australia and the US, including Best Australian Poems (twice). She was shortlisted for the Newcastle Poetry Prize and nominated for the Best Of The Net award. She lives in Yass, New South Wales, and is finalising her first manuscript.

© 2019