dust blanket reversal pome (c1863)

the rolled warm dogsbody
of a lumpen stranger
lays asleep under the verandah

a bright morning
above a stringybark hut
cockeys tear apart the pink sky

at last stirring
eyes awake and looking then 
bolt upright in one long smooth movement

his hairy ears
broiled with a pinch of mustard
look just like the ridgeline above this place

the soil of sacrifices
has got into every crevice
of these claws now nursing coffee

dew drips from the wattle saplings
poking over on the roof line
onto large stones brought up from the river

a twist of tobacco
into the pipe clay bowl
a smoke noxious and pleasant

drifting off to the tangled trees nearby
and so begins the slow moan
of a new summer day

a new summer day
releases the slow moan
drifting through the tangled trees

a smoke noxious and pleasant
drifts into a small bowl
and magically a twist of tobacco appears

the stones walk back to the river
and a house disassembles
into wattle trees bright with flowers

rising from the soil
people gather into a circle and begin to sing
a journey into eternity

the sun setting slowly
as pterodactyls twist in loose white flocks
tearing apart the sky