snack time
on the summit of Jumbo Mountain
crashing thunder
a bear bowls
one boulder into the next
leaves a tasty ant nest
open to sky
my bones almost register
the hard crack of rock on rock
Tag: sounds
December in Queensland
December in Queensland
Away in a Manger crackles
under an invisible Southern Cross
and full-lit half moon
while the maniacal kookaburras
and blood-curdling bush stone-curlews wail
accompanied by the occasional flaps and crashes
of overgrown fruit bats dangling from the trees
and once in a blessed while
the slightest sigh of breeze
it’s December in Queensland
so far from home
fog sound bank
fog sound bank
in the plush pale grey of fog
our lashes go spangled
each footstep sounds
a loud crunch in
the small space of here
a grassbird call resounds
cliff to cliff and back
its volume startles
on the summit
sound pops from all quarters
(frogs we can’t see and don’t expect
utterly untroubled by liquid air)
a dassie slowly saws stems
and we register each chew
even so I can’t make out
a sunbird’s sips
now and then wind demands attention
ruffles our hair
and blows on our earlobes:
are you all here? now?
