Pat Ransford
Leaving harbour
Sticky August night, molasses-tanged,
by a wind that stirs restlessly up-river.
Saffron moon glints like adventure
above the exhaust-fumed London grind.
I light a candle, make Lapsang tea
watch the night’s deep river flow
steadily through banks of time,
fend off thoughts of morning drudgery.
Around the courtyard, lights still gleam.
Do others chase their thoughts, not sleeping
or wait for lost lovers to return?
Stuck on a strand of dreams.
This moon belongs in the South China Sea
behind a tangle of junks and sampans -
the foreign correspondent with her Tiger beer
hearing rumours of Government rivalry.
Harboured here, I once felt free
to watch the tides ebb and flow
imagining a thousand and one routes
but one explorer can’t map every sea …
Time now to choose a course
and go.
Page(s) 32
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