IT’S HOT AS HELL WITH HADES`
Forty-five years does not change
Friendships, borne in the south
Boys cavorting, seeking truths
Places on the hearth
A resonant voice, rekindles
Memories from afar
Lifting the spirits, soothing the rush
Of time
Memories shared
Extracted and fattened
Like cattle dazing
On the fields of life
Briefly met
Moved and touched
It’s hot as hell with Hades
NGURRAMPAA
Darkness descends on the rocks
Highlighting ages of knowledge
Left as legacy
Ochred
The Ngiyampaa Nayinkaa truant
Dallying by the waterhole
Resting, storying
Painting
Patterns, meaningless
Ramblings of wanderers
Hold for a short eternity
Wisdom
The hunter is haunted
Memories of kills
Taking of sacred life
To sustain
The vulvarine beckons
Dark secrets, longing
Not to be lost
In the bosom of the land
CLIFFS OF WHITE
The mounds confront the landscape
Respecting little
Sitting like pimples
On the bum of a giant
Under their bushes, slowly growing
Tunnels funnel
The light
From the sky
Lazing below the barren landscape
Rooms with no views
Sit forlornly waiting
For the sunset to rise
All is amiss
In the lands of the dust
Upside down turvy
Places of lust
THE BACK OF BOURKE
No longer by the river
Barren riparian
Soon to be flooded
With tears
First to the edge
Away from sight
Houses decayed
Further later
Now, way out, alone
Like storks in a wetland
Tall, proud but wary
Wasted
Shadows beckon
Calling the mist
Eyes close
Darkness
NUANCES OF NYNGAN
Sitting like a dork
In front of a painting
Of trees and the desert
Covered in snow
Watching the resting
Of palaces on wheels
Soon to be floated
Flouting the flow
The river rises
Taking all in its path
Shrieking its anger
Silently and cool
Suddenly it trips
Spilling all over
The alluvial fields
Boganed once more
A BLANKET IN THE SUN
The sun blankets the land
Washing the waddies
With cold heat
In mid-winter
Rocks, petrified of life
Cringe under its piercing glare
Wishing for when they were young
Soft
The rocks tumble upward
Reforming
Emerging in the dusky light
Craving glory lost
The lonely pub sits forlorn
Waiting for travellers
To kick in its doors
Seeking refuge from life’s ills
In the distance
A roo shimmers
Tall against the red
Watching the coming copper
All is now quiet in the desert
As the rocks slowly die
Along with the town
Now abandoned
TIBBOBURRA
Thirty years changes little
In a town scorched
Blustered by shifting sands
Hiding in the corner
The pubs challenge
Travellers to choose
The best beer in town
Of little choice
Outside town the Roadhouse
Sits upright, manned by Swedes
Taking a break
From the ills of the north
The eerie rocks hide
Under the petticoat of time
Slowly moving forward
To claim their place
The red road now scorched
Black and unyielding
Squashes the dust
Beneath its rigid form
Time stands upright
Leaning forward
Seeking solace
Waiting
THE CORNER
Dunes snake their way
Slithering, cast by wind
Crowned by crust
Majestic
A forlorn fence
Wanders, pushing against the wind
Holding tumbleweeds
In its calm embrace
Bushes stir
Rustling
Hiding life
Amid their roots
A waddie pauses
Waiting
For rushing waters
To cleanse its soul
OIL FIELDS
The vast plain slides
Into the shimmering horizon
Rocky and crisp
As pretzels
Beneath, lazy gases
Slumber
Waiting for the anvil
To awaken their sleep
Water sinks, wasting the land
Filling the voids
Left by departing miasma
Churning and boiling
Suddenly blackness rushes
Headlong to the sky
Awakened by the drum
Of splintering burrs
Darkness descends
Blanketing the land
COOPER’S CREEK
The river languidly wonders
Seeking a spot to drift and moisten
Darkened walls beckon
Life
Gums hug the banks
Standing tall
Silhouetted against the burning sky
Forlorn
Brambles mark the rise
Of the flood
Tumbled and dry
Waiting for the wind
Egrets puzzle
At the muddy flats
Looking for lunch
Standing proud
Downstream the river stumbles
Over rocks
Laid in its path
Pulsating with zest
ROCKS ON THE SAND
Pink earth frames
Crusty rocks
Hiding behind
Brown tussocks
They lay
Grasping for warmth
Of the day coming
From the east
Shadows creep westward
As the stirring sun
Blinks awake
Over the far horizon
The rocks tingle
Shifting, shuffling
Seeking shards
Of the coming heat
The tussocks cringe
Exposed
Fearing bo be burnt
By the rising sun
COOPER’S CROSSING
The lazy tar lies slumbering
Pitted by time and flow
High above the bed
Of Cooper’s Creek
Seasons and years
Come and go
Leaving legacies
Viewed by travellers
Tumbledown marks
The latest flood
High above the weir
Harbouring finches
Egrets slowly peck
Between strewn rocks
Tossed by the roar
Of a mighty mistress
When the flood subsides
The river cools its heels
Laying languidly
In its shrinking bed
FIRELIGHTS
White heat screaming with life
Roars upward from tiny twigs
Broken and tossed
On the dusty sand
Heat ringed by a yellow mantle
Licks the night air
Sending it spiralling
To the distant moon
Red splotches pulsate
Amid blue streaks
Like fairies dancing
A fanciful jig
The roar is interrupted
As dry logs ignite
In flashes of sparks
That die slowly as they fall
Surrounding rocks groan
At the onslaught
Cringing in fear
Of being torn asunder
In the morning
Embers blink slowly
Eyeing the coming warmth
Of a desert sun
DANGER IN THE DESERT
The emu majestically leads
Its brood of chicks
Seeking sustenance
Amid the drying stalks
The chicks frolic and tumble
Oblivious
As their mother
Eyes the circling predator
She leads them swiftly
Into the longer grass
Making for the cover
Of a thorny growth
The brood elongates
In the dry savannah
Leaving the puny
Exposed to harm
The eagle seizes the moment
Swooping downward
Intent on a feast
Of succulent juices
The mother turns
Rounds her chicks
Hurries them to the shelter
Of the prickly clump
CREAKING BONES
Walking frames resting by the pools
Of life’s essences, warm and bright
Tight purses, lightly coursing
In spas of sheer delight
Not for the faint hearted
Dipping a toe, playing it cool
Waiting for the time to come
When creaking bones heal
Over eighties stick to the side
Younger ones tan their hides
Facing the sun of a late afternoon
In the Moree Spa Pools
LAMMERGEYER
DEBASEMENT
Beneath water running tepidly
Life in lazy maelstrom
Turmoils surreptitiously
FIRMAMENT
Water passively reflecting corrugations
Refracting light, alacrity
Poises indiscernibly awaiting malformations
Stalks kissed by flaccid draughts
Hunker by a gipsy, concatenately
Ensconced in quiescent thoughts
Intensively pursuing coruscations
The egret honourably reconnoiters
Speculatively anticipating alimentations
ELEVATION
Superior, the lucid alfresco trove
Awaits the victorious assassin
Soon to soar, above
Life follows Songlines 