Turning it over
it’s no coincidence
that the famous Tom Roberts painting
Holiday sketch at Coogee, 1888
preserved here in postcard form
is also the same view of the very fence post
where Christ’s mother appeared to the people of Coogee
on those heated, sunstruck afternoons.
In the painting no one on the beach is nude.
People stroll the shore under parasols.
Cliffs in the distance, minus bathing baths.
Impressionism captures haze so well.
No shark has vomited up a tattooed arm in the aquarium.
No distant world wars. Not even a ravenous gull.
No cynical fence post, either, to deflect
the sunbright glare of Coogee’s vision splendid.
It is as if the figure that might be Our Lady (dressed
in black) is picnicking,
surveying distant figures across the hot sand.
The sky beautiful as a bruise,
the waves petrified tulle frozen in paint.
Yet motion is what’s wanted
as Our Lady of Coogee finally stands up,
black as pitch,
brushes crumbs from her holy shroud
amidst the fish and chip wrappings,
the apparition’s vandalised fence post,
and opens her arms in wonder
at the miracle of real estate.