States of Poetry - Poems
'Mackerel' by Sarah Holland-Batt | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One
by Sarah Holland-Batt •
How fine it is to mutiny
against my tired mind—
say self, you are through,
to smash into a mirrorball
of echoes all scaled
in dizzying Nordic blue
feel the universe tilt
and infinitely rebuild
to flicker
like a skerrick of spindle silver
needle-quick,
and never be held—
this is the freedom
of the unilluminated world
where corals pulse
in the dark like deathstars, unmoved,
and leaflets of seagrass
witter in the fracas and fray
of elfin shrimp
and the forays of smolts and eels,
and I can forever surf
not between places but selves,
scavenging the ultramarine layers
for other lures, other lives.
Sarah Holland-Batt