KA Rees #71 - Native Pastures

Native Pastures

The under-storey is a compass

of leaves, variegated

browns caramel joss sticks

of dried grasses in kicked-up

passes, windrows of trampled loam lie

as combs

of exposed soil.

Year long grazing of cattle

and sheep has changed

the soil profile. Bruce Pascoe

wrote in Dark Emu

European explorers chose not to see

the evidence of Indigenous cultivation

even thought they wrote in their diaries

of grasses in fields like gardens.

They spoke of accidental beauty, accidental

gardening, wondering why fertile plains

were devoid of trees.

In this dry continent grass

perennials can act as annuals in dry

years and perennials in wet.

Annuals bloom till the frost sits still across the spine

of earth, then they fold across it, returning

again to the soil their smaller tighter leaves, die back—

cast to the ground

to bloom again. Lilies, daisies, sedges,

grow next to Kangaroo and Spear Grass, Poa, rushes

and Red Grass. A native pasture will see out

changes to the seasons and stresses of the weather

it was known by those who cultivated it.