Remembering: A Poem for Chris Straw

 

This

(for Chris Straw)

To bring people into a single room

with maps, charts, projections, theories

about huge freighters anchored in the strait 

their crews cooped in the belly for months 

for profit to those we don’t know 

… this is something he can do.

Frame pictures of Orlebar Point

taken yesterday or a hundred years ago

you stare at unable to move as if

there is a message in the invisible arms

holding you there

something important, a mystery 

which you try to grasp

… this is something he can do.

To stay with the grief 

to list all that has been lost

feel a presence from ancestors 

to grandchildren knowing tomorrow 

will never be the same

beyond our understanding

… this is something we can do.

To keep familiar faces  in the heart

when questions too large for mind

call for comfort from the bravest dreams 

in our community

… this is something I can do.