Near Launching Bay
(for Rody Gorman)

by Edward MacDonald

There’s a full moon and a white boat
on the dark mirror of the bay.
It would break your heart to leave this place,
but it breaks your heart to stay.

Small secrets come and go
on the pendulum of the tide
and the long sweep of Panmure Light.
But the bay’s mouth is wide

enough to swallow up a life
and carry it far along
beyond the reach of Panmure’s light
though the tide’s pull is strong.

There’s a white boat and a full moon
and a fire on the beach,
and the child’s face in the firelight
is mine, but it’s out of reach.