Hot Day Tree

Old Gnash: chewn glory of a Red Gum
Tree massif living off chaos, branch arches,
Knot reaches, to steam above trunkled columns:
in branchlets, up spouts - fixed in slow trances

Of riband leaves are exhaled of a lazy dance,
To partner airs at the sky gates with breath,
In a silhouette of noon skies in forgivenance
Like the last-ditch rites of our lifesaver death.

The knurls of its flesh are knotted feeling.
The ropes of its limbs, the robes of leaves,
Shake in our hearts, the earth goes reeling
As we bleed up its wooden parable of eves…

With a mouth to mouth it hosts our days
To eat the sun and give us back its shade

Wayne David Knoll © 2 Feb. 1999

Hot Tuesday in Red Gum Country,
near the Corpus Christi Community,Greenvale, Victoria