Resort

Because we are always eating, it is hard

to notice the telltale signs.

The pool is waist high, and yet:

adults wearing floaties.

Everyone agrees it is altogether inappropriate

to reserve the best seats by the pool

before breakfast. But everyone

does it anyway, including me. Counting

the unmolested towels

left on beach chairs is my favourite part

of the holiday. A novelty hat is my weapon

of choice. The collective noun

for guests is a herd, if they acknowledge

one another. Otherwise, it is

a violence. Watch as they almost erupt

into a gallop, knuckles white for clutching

some possession just valuable enough to signal

their existence. In the same way

a dog uses piss.

Russell Coldicutt lives on the unceded land of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people in Canberra, Australia, where he works as an urban planner. His poetry has been published in journals across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand including Hue & Cry, Mimicry, Snorkel, and Cordite.