from unsettled
*
At the Art Gallery of South Australia
four Robertsons arranged in a square
the focus of the wall,
William, Margaret, brother John, daughter Jessie
and I’m casting a line across water and time
making a ripple in the gallery calm
weather banished here
no squalls off the Southern Ocean,
nothing to stir the temple air
no dirt certainly no blood
nothing to ruffle these ivory faces,
the past so carefully lit
contrast the black velvet of coats and cravats
and the whiteness of their faces
with Manalargenna gazing close by
his red ochre and pipeclay dreads
Bock’s gouache eerily alive
and already the tide’s slipping in fast,
there’s more than a ripple here
there’s a shiver.
*
And in no time
sheep and human mouths begin tearing
the breath out of the land.
Blue-chinned squat-stone men
settled on the creeks
drew their boundaries tight
building names with acres while the land looked away
and the sky fell.
In no time the meaning of the land was the owning of the land
was the moaning of the land
was all owned land but not home-land
home always elsewhere
back there
this land grass-land
disappearing into the many mouths
and the sounds of swamps unspooling
grubbed grubbed grubbed
the sound of tearing.
*
(Died 1874, worth £290,000)
William was an honest man
acquired his land at auction
what did the land say?
Gulidjan, Wathawurrung
Herefords and Shorthorns
William after pedigree
what did the land say?
Gulidjan, Wathawurrung
He bred a stately tonnage
and the bulls were beauties
what did the land say?
Gulidjan, Wathawurrung
Oxford Cherry Duke
worth 19,000 guineas
what did the land say?
Gulidjan, Wathawurrung
Land that was trampled
land that made his fortune
what did the land say?
Gulidjan, Wathawurrung
from Time of Fire
people neighbours connection
like I’ve never felt
ask anything clearing carting
checking it would be done
and what you didn’t ask for
hoses rakes water containers
would be there
this bond deep and unspoken
not mystical visceral
you’d be panicking text or ring
they’d come they’d work they’d reassure
not once not once did anyone not come
there was no edge to this spirit
and I’ve never felt such
care there were no barriers
the more the fire took
the more this feeling took hold
though no-one would admit it
say it
it was love
*
and it was the treeferns
astonished us all
stripped to sticks
blackened verticals
no vestige of fern-tracery
all the green light gone
lifeless we thought
but they proved us wrong
came back from nothing
out of thin air
first a knuckle then a finger unscrolled
uncurled an arm many fern-arms
entire slopes re-lit with green crowns
they roared back
and made it look easy
shrugged off our doubts
pushed up and out the muscle
deep in them
Gondwanan foreknowledge
fire-knowledge
we pointed at them
exclaimed at such insouciance such defiance
we admired every frond
having imagined them such delicate creatures
so happy to be wrong