#106 Kevin Brophy 'Taking them home'

So we walked the horses across the road

back to their home paddock,

and as we walked Sweetie looked around

while Nellie kept her old head down.

They were content to take their two big brown

hay-dreaming souls clipping up the drive and in

through a narrow gate to a hillside paddock

of scrubby black wattle, apple box and peppermint gums

crossed by a sandy-bottomed midday creek where

I’ve heard a platypus moved in under the bridge last winter

and has made its home alongside a dark old carp

that rules this bending water and its fallen shade

                        in this part of this world.