[This looks so much better on my site]

… is someone’s beach-idea perfected in whale-bone
hung with a meniscus of turquoise
as elegant as a a young girl’s calf
run down to kiss the sea.

Cloud moves in to obscure the climbers while we
mere tourists go down and up.

Cloud covers the blades of Mt Amos
Like a glacier return’d
to grind at these dolomite tors with vapour.

The expedition’s late, the operator frantic—
though he’s saying nothing. A woman
is sobbing in a corner, cursing her luck
and her heart, while we careless
take the wind’s whitecap embrace, fill our sails
and spin away down the road.

Illustration: – Old Whaling Station, Wineglass Bay, c.1875, Engraver Edward Paxman Brandard. Hand-coloured by John Skinner Prout. Published in Australia Illustrated from Drawings by Edwin Carton Booth. Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office.