Canto of Orienteering

From creek to creek, breakaway

to breakaway, well to well,

ditch to ditch,

I am impelled, driven…

my guide directs with cork and needle,

compass in a bowl of water,

precious drinking water, bag

hanging from the roo bar, bag

of waters, as amniotic as the curl

inside the gut when gum-leaf whistles

are blown through the hand, single

vibrating reed, or towers

built over entries of ant holes,

the storm deluge instant hypnosis,

the risen ground suddenly phallic

against the repressed biology

of the district, wired-in and restrained,

once orange crests of fungi on fallen trunks,

intense labia, dried as if sex

passed and pheromones

became vague, just discernible

enough to compel a breeding,

hanging on to build nest,

breed in small hollows,

among the granite and quartz

chunks, not out in the open,

taking risks, predators ravenous

for sex and flesh and fear,

where the map of ‘in our own

image’ takes us cloning.