Submerged

Slips of fish like smears of transparence:
the lagoon shallow and humming
 
where paperbark branches scrape
in the wind near four men in the surf’s
 
wildness, ringed by extrusions of rock:
two brothers, one brother-in-law, a nephew;
 
or perhaps two uncles, their nephew
and one father. Dolphins fish in a large pod,
 
the spiked ridge of submerged rock appearing
momentarily in spume, a dinosaur’s back
 
surrounded by fins. From here: a son, his father,
two brothers-in-law disappear in swirls
 
of embroidered foam. By the lagoon,
black cockatoos break open banksia heads
 
with prehistoric grey beaks, impervious
to the squabbling of the nectar-eaters.