In a cove of foam and grasping driftwood he finds five suitcases, and heavy with salt drags them ashore. Inside one a plastic bag of cash, a copper rosary, a letter that dissolves in his hands. He leaves the cases lined up on the sand from largest to pink-stickered smallest.

Jonathan Battista is an author and poet, and an accidental finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam. He has been published in Aniko Magazine and Alethia Literary Quarterly, including as the winner of the inaugural ALQ prose poetry award. He lives on Dharug and Gundungurra Country in the Blue Mountains of Australia with his wife and son.