Re-greeting Australia the motherland
From the eggshell membrane of the plane
that peculiar incubating sojourn with four hundred others
I look through the peephole of a rear window
a moment gifted at dawn above the continent’s heartland
and way below there’s a huge primeval creature crouching.
In the dawn light its coat is maroon
the colour of placenta
a persistent image of birthing
for this creature is also mother
this motherland I was born to
and my eyes fill on seeing her
as if three months away has been longer, longer
yet how strange she is, like no other.
As the dawn lightens
I see rivers swelling southwards.
In this abundant season
her emptiness is watery, watered.
The great red-brown surface shows ephemeral veins, blueish
and there are pale cream and ochre swathes
of water atop salt, hints of aqua
as if she the mother is wearing a clinging silky garment
but underneath you can still see her bulky body
brown and resolute.
Remember, this is a flying rapture
high above the mud and bulldust
the throat can swell freely, throb in greeting
I know her.
More poems from Nicola Bowery's poetry collection 'married to this ground'