"at rivers edge"

at rivers edge
this blackest swan
licking at my feet (again)
and the concretes
all spin up, up
at those weak birak skies
not ever deep, only ever
just bunuru empty

and in djeran
sometimes May storms
pummel-wreck our vegetables
spring onions broken, uneaten
and makuru silverbeet trainwrecks
and bugs, fat brown caterpillars
wait in plastic containers
for some hint
of djilba spring

yet here, kambarang
keeps the chiddi chiddi
talking, swish-tails at insects

seasons here, brother
are measured not in ¼s
but six times
until birak licks
at my feet (again)


Allan Boyd, aka Antipoet (Western Australia)

Editor's note: Click here to learn more about the six seasons of south-west Western Australia.