His wife held his shoes

Have hauled my raggedy arse up along
the eastern shore of Australia. A night
on a quiet beach at Lennox Head, where
I found the Southern Cross finally, or
something that looked like it. Men were
fishing in the dark water with lights
and white buckets and long rods. I sat
there in my pinstripe jacket and the
trucker's cap from Small Point, Nfld.
Next day a bus took my to Byron Bay,
and I walked around a cape that is
Australia's most easterly point. I know
all about easterly points, and was
surprised how one can be replaced with
another. Cliffs, wind, the park
administration. There were five humpback
whales forcing fish into the shallow bay. It
began to rain. I watched a man hang glide
for the first time, and his wife waved
at him, clutching his shoes. Dolphins
turned their backs on the waves, and
surfed. There was the dark diamond
of a manta ray. When the rain happened,
it seemed everyone was carrying
an umbrella, and there was a chinese
woman in knee-high plastic red boots,
walking past an agressive black turkey.