Out on the Plateau

14–19 C this

tin sell

season

thunder and lightning at four

three hours

soak

Crinia creaking at midday

a scarp of fire grass in lemon flowers

new spikes

a controlled burn this one

after rain

La Nina

peace is no heat no inferno

no smoke

no imminent evacuation

no

pyrocumulus

the ute sat still

calm as the rain pummelled

the tray

Budderoo

Barren Grounds

Gang-gangs late leaving

14, 16, 18, more?

moving a canopy

flush with new sap

guttural those rare hearts

I sat at the empty cottage and listened

earlier yellow-tails

eastern robins

black-faced cuckoo shrikes

grey shrike thrush

white throated treecreepers everywhere no there here there now

her list lengthens

the day long

three past solstice

wet enough for a tiny leech on the instep

Linnaeus invented Mammalia

what a twisted tale you did not

tell

nature the milky virgin

two white hemispheres

tipped by vermillion

oh please

tree ferns line that sweet cool flow

satin flycatcher silent

at the crossing

no need

to say anything

26 December 2021