SEPARATION LANDSCAPE
when you threw the boiling water on my
leg i felt like i was fading away/ i
jumped up out of my burnt brown skin/
i left you preferring not to look at
you/ increasing speed along the hwy
heading east/ in peterborough picked
up a baby magpie/ fluffed up in the
middle of the road/ & looked for other
injured animals/ but most of them were
dead/ kindi missed you & sat looking
out the back glass window of the e.h.
holden/ i tried to distract her from
your absence & the blue hard sky & hwy/
& white lines running backwards to the
base of your black shoe/ i half slept
that night at a roadhouse in broken
hill/ & crawled into the shower block/
the relief of hot water pounding into
my shoulders/ the ghost of your violence
attached to my blisters/ back at the
e.h. binda chased rabbits/ & i rolled
out my sleeping bag & rolled into it/
i will admit i smelt the chest of your
faded black sloppy joe/ in the same
way i smelt my dog's collar after
he died/ kindi went to sleep on it
waiting for you to come back/ the next
day a hard hot drive from wilcannia to
bourke/ i dropped your leftover clothing
into a petrol station garbage bin/ &
focused my thoughts on hazy windscreen
horizons, exhausted dogs & my waiting
father in brewarrina/ & i took a short
cut across our separation landscape/
scraggy emus & snakes skidding in front
of my tyres/ the sun burning into my
forehead & solitary riverside properties
hidden by trees/ at louth my car losing
grip & almost turning over on the grey
river soil/ with my two thirsty dogs
panting in thirty seven degree heat/ i
am struggling to hang onto the wheel |
