Sea sparkle

(Noctiluca scintillans, Thirroul Beach, August 2014)


After the rain a dull red tide
muddied the angry sea,
and the sky hung low and grey.
No swimming today.


I moped back up to the house to read
and hours had slipped away
when dad called out to me
that lights were on in the sea.


We walked out in the clear-rinsed dark
and down to watch the waves
breaking there in bright
displays of blue-green light.


It had to be magic. Water like fire
flaring into the dark!
Was it a sea-change?--
a thing so ghostly and strange.


We ran towards the breaking waves
and saw our footprints spark
as if we’d gone to play
along the Milky Way.


I cupped my hands and scooped up stars
then let them fall away
and lightning flashed and played
with every move I made.


I was in the universe,
with stars around my feet,
a giant hurling light
at random in the night.


Galaxies were swirling by
tumbling time and space
to sand-grains in my mind.
I’d left the world behind.