Audrey Molloy – Redemption, Redleaf Pool

Molly LE P&W February 2025

Download PDF Here

Live Encounters Poetry & Writing February 2025

Redemption, Redleaf Pool, poem by Audrey Molloy.


Redemption, Redleaf Pool

sunrise
From his pylon, the cormorant watches me,
as he once watched Eve in the Garden.
He rents the sky’s white silk, holds
his breath longer than me, dives deeper.
He doesn’t name the fish, as I do,
doesn’t know what he has taught me about God.
When he unpacks his wings in weak sunlight
he looks like an emblem, a fallen angel.

midday
Gulls, gulls. The graceless calls of them.
Two children take their chances,
spilling from the whispering shade.
They barely make a shadow on the sand.
The younger child inspects a jellyfish,
immortal, but for its errant ways.
The older one impales it with a stick—
this high-tide line is not for sissies.

sunset
More fish than I can count
at Redleaf Pool. On the teak pontoon,
a woman and a man, barely clad,
practising tai chi;
one squats, the other rises
in waning intervals until, at last, aligned.
Scarlet light fades to lavender.
Renouncing gravity, a pelican lifts off.


© Audrey Molloy

Audrey Molloy grew up in Ireland and has lived in Sydney since 1998. Her debut collection, The Important Things (The Gallery Press, 2021), won the Anne Elder Award and was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize. The Blue Cocktail was published by The Gallery Press and Pitt Street Poetry in 2023. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University and is the recipient of a Literature Bursary Award from The Arts Council of Ireland. She is co-editor of The Marrow International Poetry. https://www.themarrowpoetry.com/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.