Julie Maclean
Sand flats and salt bush
mean nothing to us
yet in this sparseness
I marvel at the repetition
the clinging on
and the way I manufacture
kindness in needle bushes
parasols against the sun
Some days I could get used to
leaving tracks like wild dogs
an emu and his
chicks, a stumpy or a snake
Once I sailed Cooper Creek
on a flatbed ferry
this time I blow the top layer
off the gibber plain
in a truck But we have arrived!
invading homes of spitfire birds
the intrigue of a lizard slide
At dusk jibber-jabber
up and down a tonal ladder
Always the urgency of a parrot
Gnats have started their
corroboree in a column of sunshine
before switching down
while a black snake effortlessly
lifts himself from the neck
of the gas bottle like a symbol
Julie Maclean’s third collection Kiss of the Viking (Poetry Salzburg) was published in 2014. Shortlisted for The Crashaw Prize (Salt), her work appears in international journals like Poetry (Chicago), Mslexia and The Best Australian Poetry (UQP). Blogging at juliemacleanwriter.com