29 October 2016

This Whole Place Is Home



Watching me don my walking boots from the gate 
‘bout 50 metres away, and echoing an eagerness 
to get going suggests that my mate Podge’s idea 
of a stroll needs little preparation; well he’s ready 
th’ instant a notion to promenade’s agreed, altho’ 
it isn’t exactly clear who is conducting whom, nor 
to where each occasion; today’s heading is off in 
an animated impression of a trip to the dam 

So I greet fourteen young Norfolk Pine seedlings 
shooting at the track’s beginning - & Podge sniffs 
breezily up the trail, peeing on things needing an 
olfactory who’s boss signature - & he never runs 
dry I note as we make our arthritic way at a cost 
of creaking limbs and none-too-steady footing  

But that is the least of the adventure - halfway up 
the crest after th’ dam we spy a wallaby doing its 
dash to greener fields - Podge pretends to be th’ 
dominant beast in a Boss Dog caricature - but it 
peters out without disturbing cattle lying at rest - 
diligently, you guess, chewing th’ morning’s cud 

There y’ go, I say to my cobber, who’s slow pace 
is now a geriatric shuffle, we’re half way, reckon I 
can beat you home without using any energy - its 
an audaciously brazen challenge that he ignores, 
there is no way he’d rise to bait of being first t’ th’ 
home gate, as he says, this whole place is home 
© 11 Jun 2016, I. D. Carswell 

No comments:

Post a Comment