The Other Beach

This corner, a cliff’s
fogged cellar

forged in monochrome—
quarried down

to the obdurate growl
of waterstones—

trundles over
and back its basalt

cannon balls, ballast
for its sunken hold.

And no matter how
they grade the track,

fence off the rank
overweeded gaps,

it chills, like a place
you might come to drown

a mewling sack.

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Megan Kitching is an Ōtepoti Dunedin poet. Her work has appeared in many publications including takahē, Poetry New Zealand Yearbook, Tarot, and Landfall. Her debut poetry collection is At the Point of Seeing (Otago University Press, 2023).