Crocodile Spotted at Casuarina Beach – Jan 26th, 2017
Sun-pressed into the shadows,
the heat a crosshatch of blisters
on their bodies, sand scoured
by summer and barnacled by salt,
the sea so blue it hurts the eyes,
the teenage truants cup their view
between the branches of a casuarina,
the wind a slight hiss
and a gust of seagulls passing by.
Hush-giggling their way along the sand,
they approach with randy trepidation
that place, taboo, the nudist beach,
a wobbling, jiggling mecca of peach –
hued beauties and clapped out men.
Unnoticed, their sleek-haired sheltie
herds a crab inside its hole and sets
its sights on the breakers that tease the shore
and taunt the dog with baited waves.
And as they wait, breath held, hard-bodied
and intent, neither boy notices the lurking figure,
watching the watchers with retractable eyes.
The crocodile hunting.
The sheltie’s surprise.