(Anakreontic; Archive listing ARV 270.180, C.490BC)
Kudos for your efforts, poet
– Anakreon it is presumed –
for taking this journey
along unsigned roads
to the granite
emerald-threaded shoreline;
For bearing the jagged rocks
and causeways
with only a shepherd’s staff
you found above the harbour
amongst flecks of wool
and broken teacup hoofs.
I would follow your path
today, but for August's greedy sun,
to the concrete ocean breaks
heaped upon the beach
like a child's forgotten toys;
where such wisdom I might restrain
glints among crevices into which
the tides spurt and gutter;
Where opal-eyed sea lions
lollop along the surf, sleakfurred
and slick as candour,
whiskers stuck with pebbles greening
tide-smoothed beer-bottle glass.
They close their pinnae to the sea,
and dive: three small bubbles
reach for the surface and drown.