#147 Kevin Brophy 'While camping at Lake Paruku'

#147 ‘While camping at Lake Paruku’

We discovered one new galaxy,

an extra planet and six ways

to light a fire.

We slept with

stars falling on us,

dreamed of bears in a forest,

dingoes on the dunes;

and one of us got to sleep

with the 8 iron by her side.

We woke to budgerigars

busy among the coolibahs

and gangs of white cockatoos

drifting down in pairs to the tree tops

where they groomed each other

as if to show us their other,

less juvenile side.

We tried to scare an orange banded snake

away across the ochre sand

until this bright creature from a dream

disappeared beneath our tent

or possibly inside it.

We left behind the ants, the sand, the flies,

the lake, the cynicism of the cockatoo,

the pale green innocence of the budgerigar,

and the open arms of the sturdy coolibah,

saying we will be back soon

with more wood and more fears.