Fish Coat

Image: Trish Jean

Fish Coat
(Trish Jean)

In the clouds
A long way yet
From landing
Out over the ocean
I long to don a
Straight jacket
Wearing fish scales
And plunge
Without protest
Slippery and sharp
Giving up
Groundlessness
Free falling
To the crack of
Parting water
Deep diving
Into the weight
Of my own
Faith

I wrote this while flying from Adelaide across to Port Lincoln. It’s not literal, I’m not the crazy brave sort who would jump out of a flying object. I could barely bring myself to awkwardly spill off the high diving boards at the Civic Pool in Canberra as a kid. It was never a thrill, more a thankfulness at having survived.

I do think there is something delicious about falling into your own faith, with your encumbrances (the straight jacket) intact and not inhibiting a rightful entry (denoted by the fish scales) to home.

I think I shall dedicate this poem to my best friend Catherine with whom I often share conversations about our desire to change certain things, even small things, and the challenge that can sometimes be.

This is about coming home, about bravery of a different sort. The visual is nice, the feeling liberating…but…