AT RUNNING CREEK
We cross the tributaries
to Running Creek,
barely a dewdrop of moisture,
the rains as absent as care.
Old waterways are left
to comfort each other,
and leaving road and dwelling
to their own measure
we chase our way to the tops—
pause to admire a
tapestried land and regard
its desiccated scars,
windless enough now to
hear even a pintail dove
address the green open hillsides.
My companion wonders on this
arrived quietude—
just the arrhythmic percussion
of a seed pod’s opening
to bring order and realisation:
we might be auctioneers who,
having sold it all,
disregard the final gavel.
John Britten is a writer and sound artist on Dja Dja Wurrung land in central Victoria, Australia.
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