Drawing by Judith Wolfe
Patricia Prime

Poem


      CHRISTMAS EVE AT KAREKARE

      A young man
      stands on the deserted beach
      the night before Christmas.

      He gazes out to sea
      past the place
      where dream are fulfilled.

      His legs are spread wide
      steady as a rock
      in the threshing surf

      His arms begin to rise
      until his silhouette
      is outlined

      against the moon.
      Finally as night
      sweeps oyer the horizon

      his outline spreads
      like ink over the blue water
      until his body

      is like the dark everywhere.
      Fish drift through it
      silent as blood.


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