It was The Jolly Frog then
on the Old Coast Road
just past Mandurah
right by the Port Bouvard Bridge.
Now it’s the Hard Rock Café
but it’s the same inside
white tablecloths
good coffee
and a startling view of the Dawesville Cut
the channel cut for fresh water flow
from the estuary to the ocean.
There was a small jetty then
just down there
with young men fishing
and some pelicans.
I can’t see it today
the bushes have grown too high.
There were scars then
scars on the land over there
on the opposite high bank
bulldozers had cut golden swathes.
Now rows of large houses
look over the ocean, the inlet and the cut.
A whale came into the cut one day
crowds of people came and watched.
Today there are only shags
drying their wings on the bridge pylons.
Uncle Bill’s ashes were scattered here one day
they took his boat through the cut to the ocean
and the wind whooshed him away.

Copyright Sandra Roe