DAVID MALOUF RANSOM - Booktopia

The sea has many voices. The voice this man is
listening for is the voice of his mother. He lifts his
head, turns his face to the chill air that moves in
across the gulf, and tastes its sharp salt on his lip.
The sea surface bellies and glistens, a lustrous
silver-blue – a membrane stretched to a fine transparency
where once, for nine changes of the moon,
he had hung curled in a dream of pre-existence and
was rocked and comforted. He hunkers down now
on the shelving pebbles at its edge, bunches his
cloak between his thighs. Chin down, shoulders
hunched, attentive.
The gulf can be wild at times, its voices so loud
in a man’s head that it is like standing stilled in the
3
Copyright © 2009 David Malouf, 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.