51. a homesick australian, in new zealand, gains a new perspective on colour & light
new zealand is deep-down volcanic, on an oceanic fault line, it was shifting beneath my feet, moving & unstable, so that i kept tripping on it, for when i took a step my own motion was competing with that of the land, in australia you know where you put you foot down, you can put your foot down ten years later & the footprint from your previous visit will still be evident, sand-blown, ochre & silently stable to the point of madness, but you will have left your mark, the flood & drought lines worn in, as indicators of the years of the settlement of the print, whilst in new zealand i gained a new perspective on colour & light, on an island too beautiful for me to feel deeply about, back across the water australia waited, its colour dull on the huge surface for its thousands of kilometres of scorching, & highly glary amongst ranges of nondescript sugar gums, i hadn't realised what australia was like, until i tried to step outside it |
