|
Day Five
XII. LEAVING BREWARRINA
My father, seen through my fingers on the glass, as
the plane tips sideways, to turn through the red dust
clouds, fragments thrown up, to catch light, that is the
sun setting, out along the red country, at the back of
Brewarrina, I wonder, will this be the last time I say
good-bye to my father, I step onto that tarmac at
Mascot half wild, as if every rock had begun to live in
me & live deep in me, until I come back again, Moo-
roo-warri, red red country, my father is standing in
the red dust, at the tiny airport at Brewarrina, as the
Airlink plane takes off at an angle, with his ute &
Patch-'Em-Up on the back, the dog he will go home
with, probably to sit down & think & make a cup of
tea, & switch on the news, as the sun sets, all I can
think of is getting a grant, so I can buy him a toilet,
worth about $3000, so he doesn't have to use the one
next door, also a kettle, & a bed base, they were
shocking, I feel teary everytime I look back out over
the land, where the sun is setting, where the wild
goats scream, because I think of him, red dust at the
airport, red light on his cheek, red sky, red country,
there came a point inside the plane, where the sun was
setting well behind me, back out on the plains, &
where I couldn't turn around, so I had to face the
night in Sydney, The Blue Mountains now behind me,
turning on their deepest mauves & winter greens,
below the clouds, below the Hazelton aircraft, my
heart was aching in, then the plane turned on the
wing, & all in one instant, I could see the lights of
Sydney, & the most beautiful red wintry sunset, back
across the rim of the mountains, back out across New
South Wales, as the big plane swerved out over the
dark ocean, coming in to land. |
