Innocence
(i.m.. of Laith age 11)
The days slip quietly by. We are hoping
to forget – those of us who can. The family
have had signs put up on significant posts
thanking everybody for their help, support
and care over the days and nights of searching,
praying and waiting and grief has closed their doors
and lives with its heavy chains.
The channel from the lake flows like an ancient
witness, its mouth wide and unaware that
its innocent chant like a child’s choir
has taken innocence.
Pines and banksia form a wild weave
against a sobering sky. A heron, called the guardian
of the edge, feeds as it does every dawn.
Light today plays gently on the edge of the rocks,
licks into the sand, ebbing and flowing.
A few gulls stand pondering. Pelicans skate along
their reflection with abandonment.
The sunflowers tied on the fence remind us
what love was taken. A child’s colourful wind–mill
plays on the sea breeze, candles and soft toys
soften the chained fence above the dunes
flowers with bewildered messages wilt in the sun
and sorrow cries to us here. We want to forget,
pretend the sea is our joy and happy place
but like an arrow piecing one mothers heart
we are reminded how it gives and takes
and in its innocence takes the innocent.
Colleen Keating
(Laith Alaid had been visiting The Entrance at the mouth of Tuggerah Lake on a fishing trip with his family from Sydney when he was taken by a strong current that was described by a local life saver as one an “Olympic swimmer couldn’t swim against”.6 Nov 2024)
