The ReturnAuthor(s): John ForbesSource: The Iowa Review, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Winter, 1998), p. 23Published by: University of IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20154638 .

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The Return

I often dream about the ocean

and would like to write

a long ode to water, because I live

on a drought stricken flood plain next to a sea where a baked delta

opens between glittering sandstone cliffs

& the dunes and beaches make holiday resorts

seem like colonies in outer space.

Where are the green islands? Where are

the sticky hibiscus flowers,

the paddocks full of clover and grass,

the intricate mangrove swamps

& the mud that squelches between your toes?

Instead I am covered in salt?

the same brother you forgot whose wounds were like rumours

of the rains' failure

but who returns even so, just as the wet arrives

after weeks of dry storm lightning out to sea

& who stands in front of you

dressed in his flash city clothes

but suddenly shy, like a stranger embarrassed

by wet footprints and tears

& the sudden atmosphere of drama.

23

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