Occasion

by Gabrielle Higgins

She sits at the top of the steps, leaning toward the sea,
on her tie dye decorated walking frame.

Behind her a boy, just old enough to read, stops his scooter
to ask why the tape, playing on the breeze, says ‘danger’.

It marks the space where fluoro clad workers deconstruct
the dawn service scaffolding, while on the sand, toddlers

replant the patty pan and ice cream stick poppies,
before running off to chase seagulls. Three fighter jets

pass, faster than their sound. And then we see,
in rhythmic glimpses, the dolphins who double back

as if to mark the occasion, almost as if for her, whose blond
hair catches on the strap of her camera, as she leans forward to shoot.

Whether they will be seen or hidden in the print is immaterial,
as she watches for the tell-tale glint of sun on their sheen,

until there is only the sea, which we know is not empty,
and our strained, desiring eyes.