River Tales - Nandi Chinna

Nandi Chinna

Nandi Chinna is a Fremantle based writer and performer. Her poetry has been widely published in journals and anthologies and has been broadcast on RTRFM, 6PR and Radio National.

Published in her collection Our Only Guide is Our Homesickness by Five Islands Press, 2007.

The River

Let’s go down to the river.
Walk along the cliffs
sit and watch the water
the boats moving up and down
and the pale jellyfish
like big deflated balloons
trailing their ribbons along
the washed up shore.

Let’s stay here
until the lights of the bridge
create galaxies in the swirling
eddies of darkness
and a warm salty wind
wraps us up in the history
of harbours and rivers
and boats and journeys.

Let’s watch the people
casting lines off bridge pylons
as ships move in through the heads
all lit up with the stories
of warm currents and oceans.

Let’s call this place home
you and me and a third thing
the one we can’t name.
We don’t have it
we can’t give it away.

Quick Launch

Title

Body