1.3.16 (#60) Crown by Myron Lysenko

between the houses on the main road

and the houses on the minor road
lies a large sloping beast of crown land

surrounded by rare, dark Black Gums

and divided in the middle by a creek

not too far away the Great Dividing Range rests
and looks down over this valley

with its dark blue eyes and a memory
which goes right back before the time of history

when the grass is mown the ravens come

to feast on the east side while on the west
side of the creek the cockatoos eat
and along the railway line the magpies keep watch
or fly above the town looking for lost ones

in the very centre of the land

is a bed full of rocks and stones,

rocks and stones which once ruled this land
under their hard, glittering crowns

but now they lie in a pit burning in the sun

stick insects make every tree look bigger

and a little more alive as they pretend

to move with the breeze blowing down from the
mountain stretching its neck up into the clouds