Tableland Talk June 2025
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Monthly Archives: May 2025
Waiting for the 2.42
Waiting for the 2.42
nothing much else to do
so we cuddle and kiss
oblivious
to the sensibilities of the other pair
sitting there
Room
There is a room in a house on a hill without doors
nobody knows what it was put there for
because nobody knows that it has no doors
the room in the house is alone and forlorn
trapped by its emptiness without any doors
never able to hope for better or more
ne’er an open door through which to explore
Ariel is submarine
Ariel was submarine once seen
where aquatic fossils scraped the sky
submarine is like a dream
of eternal meanderings passing by
like a book written within
like records of the past deep
until revealed or awoken
they have lain millennia asleep
Run river red run dry run dead
In the Valley there are few trees now
since white settlement the river gums have bled
steadily back into ever depleting soil
the dehydrating sap bleeding red
some majestic sentinels remain
on final watch across the floodplain
of gritty dust and cropped introduced grasses
as the parade of indigenous extinction passes
withdrawing from the flats
retreating across the hills
ascending to heaven after suffering grave ills
and the broken remnains of centuries of trees
stand skeletal or lie shattered on the ground
as if awaiting a last chance for redemption
after each falling whoosh and final thump of sound
in atonement for overseeing the loss of forest
they crave to protect their young who escape the cut
of plough or chainsaw or grazing teeth they
enfold survivors in fractured parental branches
fostering the roots beneath
attempting nurture of trunk and leaf
but they have nothing left to bequeath
to young individuals left standing exposed
to sadly age in grief
witness to a parasitic human occupation
a relentless quest by the future’s thief
Waterhole
Water water
in that hole
I see water in that hole
been so dry a heavy toll
now I see water in a hole
drinking drinking
drinking up
I keep drinking hands a cupped
all that water it’s going down
I keep drinking though it’s brown
walking staggering
just how far
to another waterhole reservoir
the door of hope is now ajar
waterholes be my repertoire
heat and sun
pounding down
no further waterhole to be found
in the lee of boulders I go to ground
to die in shade without a sound
Going nuclear
The idea of Australia going nuclear galls me
Mr Dutton with a finger on any nuclear button appals me
This land of sunshine vast spaces and mineral wealth
locked into a future of power hazardous to health
with effective contribution to the grid decades away
when we can scale up renewables here today
I am in a state of dismay
at nuclear plants throughout the land
of nuclear waste dumps / come contraband
of huge ongoing costs already astronomical
compared with falling costs efficient and economical
of obsolete technology by the time it is in place
when an ever improving tech is already here
its a disgrace
it’s sensible to consider it and review the outcomes
but not to legitimise it without proper data and sums
this is not a neutral decision and should not be
it is populist electoral baiting for a fait accompli
The nuclear legacy window is closing ready to be dismantled
Not whimsically enthroned and politically handled
poetography.ink 