18   <b>Equatorial</b>  IAN McBRYDE<BR><BR>

Unbidden, I still dream of the sea. <BR>
That calm, unreal beach, the palms<BR><BR>

nodding, fatigued by heat, already<BR>
asleep by noon. Waves breaking<BR><BR>

quietly open, the light flat and vast, <BR>
precise. Each time I am here<BR><BR>

the sand has moved a bit more inland. <BR>
The terrain changes while I am away. <BR><BR>

What never alters is [that] ripple of beach<BR>
to the east, that indistinct shimmer<BR><BR>

where it curves into dream distance. <BR>
Something is coming, growing slowly<BR><BR>

closer. It has all names and no name, <BR>
its shape changed, its image shifting<BR><BR>

from one visit to the next. Sometimes, <BR>
despite myself, it even looks like me. <BR><BR><BR>


Used and reprinted by permission of the author. <BR><BR><BR>

<i>Click <a href=" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H15p86Es2bE">here</a> for a reading by Ian McBryde of Peter Goldsworthy's poem "After Babel," followed by this poem.</i><BR><BR>

<i>Click <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRkzJsxLNwM">here</a> for a video of the Melbourne premiere of Leonard Lehrman's setting, Jan. 5, 2002.</i>