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From: Vol.05 N.01 – Stick in a Thumb and Pull out a Plum: Poetry and Comsumption

The river is an Old Testament god

by Jennie Long

Kangaroo Valley,

The river is an Old Testament god here, waiting to be tested

Unknowable, uncommunicatable

He sees the sins of the red gums & floods their shallow root systems.

He offers no Noah, no ark,

Even the woddle atones for its vanity, the golden potentially a burning bush.

Does it hold messages for the evolutionary mystical descents of the garden?

O’ Creator of black-crested ridges & red-bellied gullies & funnel-webbed worshipers,

Tax-collecting pelicans & lowly wombats, the humble servants of the dusty shores.

& listen to the devil at play in the winds that hiss & shout,

Amplified, spitting through tall limestone gorges.

The 10 commandments are buried in geologic sedimentary here;

History & mystery.

The dark comes quickly as the heightened horizon pulls the sun

Over the valley’s upper limits and His heaven appears;

Every star twinkle a baptism, every constellation a first communion,

Shining like angels or lighthouses do as beacons of hope for the believers to clasp

their paws and claws together at in reverent devotion.

The steep cliffs are Goliath & all passers through, all of the river god’s creatures,

Are David, without a slingshot,

Just small enough to pass on through.

Published: January 2018
Jennie Long

Born and raised in Canada, Jennie Long is a recent Australian resident living and working in the Victorian high country. When she doesn’t have a pen in hand, Jennie likely has a paddle, endeavouring to see as much of the world from the inside a boat.

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

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