Coral Hull: Poetry: The Secret Horses of Peterborough: 13. The Rabbits Have Gone To Populate Tarcoon

I MACKENZIE KNIGHT I A CHILD OF WRATH A GOD OF LOVE I FALLEN ANGELS EXPOSED I

CORAL HULL: POETRY: THE SECRET HORSES OF PETERBOROUGH
13. THE RABBITS HAVE GONE TO POPULATE TARCOON

the grey ash of tarcoon is from the hotel that burned down,
if we had arrived there after dark we would have found ash,
dad said, 'there's nothing there, but there's a square of ash,'
there are rabbits softly populating the ash of tarcoon,
where no-one goes after sunset, even to get drunk,
the thick stands of mulga with rabbits as undergrowth,
ashen rabbits with red pads in the powdery red dust, with the hop of sunset on their quick tails,
just before the carpet of inland darkness hits them like dry lightning,
and they explode into more and more rabbits, just like that, massing after nightfall,
if we had gone to tarcoon there would be nothing there,
apart from the activity of rabbits that had gone there to live and gently breed,
nothing is at tarcoon, the pub is shut down and that was the last thing,
what more do you need than the hotel and the petrol station? but at tarcoon they are both gone,
smothered in feathery mulga, replaced by ash not history,
there is nothing but twilight rabbits padding along the ash,
thumping through the soft powdery red dust, soon they will be gone, just on sunrise,
abandoning dust so deep, it darkens across the land that stays warm,
dust up from beneath, that says, 'i am darker that the sky and was the first to become dark',
here, it is ash not history, that lies to us and causes us to lie to ourselves,
to fill in the empty missing places and the years of out here,
the place gives a feeling for rabbits, silent mulga rabbits,
deep mauves, greens and reds, deeper reds than imaginable,
a snake comes sss-ing along the sand, disturbed from the darkness of a winter log,
it takes a long time to get there on very rough roads, during a cold sunset,
and when you finally do, there is nothing at tarcoon,
but a refuge for mulga, ash and rabbits, once there you don't stay long,
you feel a need to get back to where you came from, or what you were doing

    

This website is part of my personal testimony that has been guided by The Holy Spirit and written in Jesus' name.

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