1979
Gippsland Fading
Well, and now you quit the dish of soft hills
with eyes of water clouds forever rising
grass dotted here and there with leatherbound animals
sunlight in drifting swatches
dry dairy folk moist Victorian flavours
tilted hills deployed for some Chinese brush
conifers inked above the chine
years of stooping over sempiternal ragwort
Part of your souls will surely remain –
lost wombat Count Strzelecki scarlet bathroom –
like wool or dreams
of figures lightly daubed
on a pastoral bowl.
The Emotions are not Skilled Workers,
Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1979