Atlantic
Jean Page
We come upon you late in the night
out of the sky — a tin bird scudding down
on to hard black earth, a tiny speck
in a thousand miles of windy ocean.
We wake to see boiling white breakers
lash a black outpouring of jagged coast,
green head-lands rising sheer—unfriendly
to boats; a dismal fort hunkering down.
In the highlands of this grey Atlantic plain
the greenest ever paddocks are criss-crossed with walls,
dotted with black and white cows. They dream nothing of cheese
but of sweet grassy-breathed calves, and one thousand
miles of water, from which nothing ever comes, excepting
wind, and its regular birds— mostly feathered, some of tin.
Bio-note
Jean Page, an Australian, based long-term in Portugal, is a researcher at the University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies, where she completed her PhD and co-edits ROAM Creative Journal. She has a special interest in Australian literature and poetry related to place. Her poetry published in Australian and local journals is often inspired by nature and travel.