Mark Roberts

the old whaling station

stood here

wasted

away

now

sand

slightly

thicker

blood

or whale blubber

ghost whales

swim offshore

songs of harpoons

pikes and rifles

remember

a crimson ocean

picture

a whale carcass

on a trolley

&

rows of workers’ cars

lined up

in a sandy carpark

Mark Roberts is a Sydney based writer and critic. He is the founding editor of Rochford Street Review (http://rochfordstreetreview.com/) and is currently poetry editor for Social Alternatives journal. His collection of poems, Concrete Flamingos, will be published by Island Press early in 2016.