TURTLES FLOATING
i would see turtles floating/ when i caught
the bus into town/ or becoming lost on the
strange road home/ where moods mapped
out days like the sun's heat rays created
sky maps for bees/ or when sounds rang
out like sirens or bells/ my fragile footing
above the grass/ in a white night gown
of the mad woman at large/ but i got to
that forest in queensland/ to view a scrub
turkey's rush into the undergrowth/ &
birds that i thought were sunlit branches
began to move/ with all the daylight of
ranges beyond filtering down/ splashing
through canopy onto old wet stones/ until
the skin took on a green tinge & pinpricks
of light swarmed over the t-shirt/ as thirty
turtles floated along the current/ reptilian
claws suspended in water made of light/
throughout the atherton tablelands bright
grass grows to feed cattle/ flocks of parrots
hungry for australian flora shriek through
rainbows/ as we drive towards ravenshoe/
thinking of old tracks & shards of freckled
light that hit my socks like minerals/ & how
birds below the foliage would receive the
sky from this outside world/ & news of
our westward shadows |