Poetry by Edward Reilly

LITTLE FISH: 1958

Little fish are transparent in their felicity, darts
Rippling over gullies and flat stones, shadows
On the sand, flashes of lightning as they hide themselves,
My big feet stirring grit and making such a din
They cannot hear the gulls’ songs.

And thou art dancing in the shallows, all heart,
All joyousness as the afternoon sun follows,
Looping over the cliffs at Port Stanvac to dwell
Like Neptune in the depths of Gulf St. Vincent,
Hymning to the marine throng.

We had swum out to the reef, and were startled
By the passage of a shark, no, a dolphin, ogling
To know if we were some kind of fish as well:
O Nereid! Would that the moment return again,
Neither knowing of right nor wrong.