Mangroves - Kenneth Slessor

These black bush-waters, heavy with crusted boughs
Like plumes above dead captains, wake the mind...
Uncounted kissing, I remembered vows,
Nights long forgotten, moons too dark to find,
Or stars too cold... all quick things that have fled
While these old bubbles uprise in stone,
Return like pale dead faces of children dead,
Staring unfelt through doors unknown.

O silent ones that drink these timeless pools,
Eternal brothers, bending so deeply over,
Your branches tremble above my tears again...
And even my songs are stolen from some old lover
Who cried beneath your leaves like other fools,
While they stil whisper "In vain... In vain... In vain".

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Kenneth Slessor (1901 - 1971) Australia