Clay pans shrink to pools
in the trail of a wet season
hold a microcosmos
teeming with life
Red finned gobies
flash a miniature flame
though tiny succulents
Carnivores varied as coral
wave vivid flowers
trick insects
to their water-garden
Under a shrinking puddle
snails with no shell
dig in for the long hot spell
*
Termite mounds signpost
a desert soak after rain
Green shoots on cumbungi
a magic lure for butterflies
Banded finches, zit, flit
in button grass, bring sound
and action to the silent pond
Dragon flies, water striders
hover, buzz the fetid air
with new life as the system
gives way to wild extremes
Low rainfall, high winds
bare earth eroding
every gully under the sun
*
Stored a million years ago
water from the inland sea
flows in ancient channels
underground
Rises in sacred ‘gnammas’
hidden rock mounds
keeping the desert alive
Farmers running cattle
bore into the basin
compete with the micro life
on a land with no water
Wild creatures struggle
to hold on, losing the fight
through every failing season