Famous Reporter # 8 - poetry, Jeff Guess: 'Beachcomber's Bottle'

JEFF GUESS

Beachcomber's Bottle

Blue afternoon.

A winter beach

anywhere,

with waves forever

painting tidelines silver.

And throwing

the things of us

back -

where they belong.

Like this bottle

pointing away from sea,

and a poet's obsession

with small boats

and easy muted endings.

Some bits are always

getting through,

past reefs

and other places.

With just a few

scratches.

Like this bottle

that left

or kept

or thrown back -

believes in us.

Jeff Guess has six collections of poetry published, and has edited two anthologies of poetry. At present he teaches English at Gawler High School in South Australia.