Virginia Jealous, Western Australia Regional Meeting.
There is mystery here, in this night-altered
garden, where things are not quite what they seem.
High waxing moon spotlights a shadow
that might be a man kneeling alongside
keening frogs in the dam. A drum roll
of retreating feet sounds kangaroos
bounding the back fence; still trees shift
a little, and leaves whisper a small betrayal
of roosting bird. It would be easy
to sleep and for this moment to slip
into history. Lemon gum silhouettes
sky, stars pass behind its loose weave of branches.
Slowly the shadowman vanishes, a night-mirage
transformed into that pile of logs where more roos
graze, hunched like boulders in the receding
dark. Emptied of nighttime imaginings
the garden fills with light. No cock crow here.
Just kookaburra laughing in the dawn,
telling who knows what lies
ahead in this new day.
From The World Turned Upside Down, Picaro Press.
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