#170 Kevin Brophy ‘Three days on the Canning Stock Route’

#170 ‘Three days on the Canning Stock Route’

     (with thanks to Bruce Dodson)

We found the moon at the end of a valley

of broken shale and spinifex.

We found camels in long grass gurgling

stringy sounds from lifted nostrils.

We found the red-faced sand dunes

lying with their elbows up.

We found the casuarinas standing up, 

broken barked, lost between millennia.

We found ourselves among the termites

working in the dark.

We found the wells dried up, abandoned

to the tourists and 4-wheel travel clubs.

We found the wasps, the feral cat,

and heard the scratchy chirr of circling kites.

We found Colonel Egerton-Warburton’s crossing

place on his march from East to West.

We found tracks that long ago lost themselves,

and cliffs teetering above their future rubble.

We made a fire, burned our fingers,

warmed our soles.

The springs survived, the tyres too,

and the sandy curves were tight as a wary bushman’s grin.