The effect of daughters

I pick up the shucked jaw

of a beer bottle from

the rock platform

under the shadow

of the headland car park.

At the water’s edge

my daughters collect jewels,

sea-sanded silica,

pieces of people shells.

We walk from Towradgi Beach

to Bellambi Point

and they teach me

about beaches and glass,

smoothed

and shell-shaped.

In the wash up

real shells burrow

feet first into the sand

and only broken,

hollow pieces conspire

under my children’s feet.

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Published – ‘Seeking Horizons’ SCWC, 2014 Anthology

Photo – Puckey’s Beach, Fairy Meadow, by author