Margi Abraham
Getting Wet
To me, New Year always means immersion in the Pacific Ocean. Since I was a child, I have spent the first week of January in various towns on the north coast of New South Wales, whose campgrounds fill with families escaping the city or hot inland towns. Each year brings the same ritual—swim, read, eat, sleep, repeat.
I love to wade into summer’s sea, jumping and floating feet first over gentle waves. A big surf will still find me keeping close to the shore as rollers break, trying to stay on my feet. Or in the ocean baths, slowly stroking through quieter, crystalline saltwater.
I float on my back, my heart facing a limitless sky, held by the embrace of ocean. Seagulls wheel up into cerulean, lifting my thankfulness – for this peace. this letting go, this island home.
New Year’s Day at the ocean baths tattooed men bounce babies in saltwater . . . first summer baptism
About the Author
Margi Abraham is a free verse and tanka poet who lives on the northern edge of Sydney, Australia. Her tanka and tanka prose have been published in Eucalypt, red lights, Ribbons, Bamboo Hut, International Tanka, and Drifting Sands Haibun.