The way down
Faint wisps of almost clouds
randomly erase the azure blue
from the canvas dome
starlit from the zenith
and fading to polluted nothingness
where earth and sky meet
but never touch.
Drought and dust thickened air
overheat in Summers cauldron
to rob all life of moisture
for natures savings account
that pays out
with interest
when only the strongest are left alive.
Critters, high beam struck crazies
all things that creepeth upon the earth
once abundant
become excitement through appearance
and farm economics thank natural selection
while I, thinking 1080 and culling,
curse unnatural human folly.
Unseen wildlife
inhabit the roadside real estate
massive gums and eucalyptus offer
with as many dead as alive
but all functioning
to shelter and nurture
concealing the struggle of reality that is life & death
but revealing the fertile soil of fantasy.
Anonymous country towns,
rich with history and incest,
blink past
and keep their stories
retold in the community essential establishments
of watering hole
and the Lords refuge.
A landscape slowly dying under over-utilisation
shows scars
from our apocalyptic planetary rape
and every successive trip
through its wide expanses
threatens us with the knowledge that
it will be even more depressing next time.
(2004)
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