swimming with dogs at twin rivers/ their slick backs moving in
and out of the water like reptiles/ with the red dog radford taught
to: kill raddy kill/ who was drowned in the arms of a kangaroo
and this small smoky coloured kelpie later shot by john sinclair/
the type of property owner that shoots his dogs because they bark
at night/ now that the darling river has reduced its flow by 40%/
backbone of cattle and sheep grazing industries/ until animal
vertebrae stick up from the land like fence posts/ big investors
snapped off at the base/ by their own short sightedness/ since
irrigation the river lies waiting dormant/ has been trapped in
vast catchments/ human-made blockages/ dad wanted to blow
all the dams up/ he said: the river's dead/ they're killing it and
weirs interrupt migration passages/ it's bone-dry/ heat affected
and baking/ evaporation is taking the water by storm/ the big blue
sky is bleaching the hot river stones/ the town celebrations are
renamed 'the festivals of drought'/ the annual event of the blue
green algae bloom/ as chemical pollution and farming nutrients
spill into waterways/ the slow current moves into compartments
is allocated is overcommitted/ billabongs aren't being recharged/
steep banks are coded/ red gums collapse into the river as it drops
rapidly/ drops into daydreams and mythology/ into the art galleries
of sydney/ city and country people alike/ this is your introduction
to the dust/ it is here you will meet with tragedy/ and salty tracts
many miles in extent/ entirely destitute of water/ and a single river
meander/ the launching pad of inland marsupials/ bounding into
extinction/ or frantically licking their birth pouches/ trying to
build up steam/ along the dreary banks of the darling