the coroner repeats –
the shorts, rocks in his shorts,
between his legs,
big as plates, spilling
as the boy is lifted
from the waterhole.
Rocks drop like crockery
on the inquest.
red singlet
pressed to his Nanna’s chest
the scent of her washing powder
Coroner’s shots:
1. Tracks lead
from safe place
to burial site.
2. Calloused toes press mud.
3. Shadows finger
the hardened prints, 4.
now on their way to another little boy.
careful selection
a red singlet
and navy shorts
for the shanghai shooter
who’s happiest on a horse
who keeps a red heeler
close
except that day
Point 80:
an ‘irrational focus’
on accidental drowning
swims into view.
No child would want to dive into that
shallow grave.
Destroyed swabs, drained eyes, cops
who need the dead to stay down,
and out of the headlines.
Years pass
before the singlet makes it home.
clothes just so
red piping on the shorts
navy stripe across the singlet
a shark logo
They were coming into town
for the old man’s funeral. One
tipped into earth while another
is held beneath water, rocks
weighing his shorts,
taking his breath.
Days later, his bare, brown chest lifts
and stirs an ‘irrational focus’,
a bad call, clumsy steps.
nearby
a number 8 shirt
XXXX can
DNA of a sex offender
inexplicable loss
of things
just so
Conclusion:
delays and dirtied evidence
led nowhere
like prints that arrived or left
or scuffled to survive.
No, they fell
as children will
in the hands of police
with other things planned
for the weekend.
Originally published in Mulla Mulla Press.