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Day One
I. ARRIVING IN BREWARRINA
1. Topography
From up here the land is charted, colour coded,
topographic & mapped out.
We keep our distance from it, humming in space.
It gets drier & flatter as the wide haze lifts.
Sunlight hits the white plane wing like a wedge.
Grey, orange & olive dust hanging in the air,
out over the Macquarie Marshes Wetlands.
It goes out & out & west & west.
Absolutely flat, except for Mount Oxley in the haze.
I'm 8000 ft above sea level - flying Airlink.
My briefcase out in the wing.
Looking down, as the land becomes flatter, more in need of rain.
There is light soil beneath the trees, worn in around the bases,
from where cattle have turned into buttery fat
& have shared some shade.
The foggy glare up from the ground
is burning into the backs of my eyes.
The Warrrumbungles to one side, glare & mist.
The young pilot looks at maps. Coolabah 30 kms to the left
& rivers like ribbons lying flat,
then turning on their sides, to stretch & dry up.
Drier & less controlled the further out.
Below the haze of the clear day,
the two silver watertanks in the distance,
the dot of Brewarrina.
We are coming in to land.
The tilt of the wide wing turning on its side.
The plane touches down in the red sand.
The roly poly bushes roll in.
A few white flags stand still.
I haven't seen dad in three years,
but it's just as usual.
He's standing there with a lit smoke.
A few more fingernails just bitten off.
He tries to conceal a smile.
Patch barking from the ute.
He grabs my bag & runs away so I can't kiss him.
So I let him go.
I'm anxious & have a slight headache.
It's all the dust particles that were suspended in the air,
light reflecting off them. |
