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Body  /  Boab

 

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A gumnut plucked                  from a fertile tree

carried across red earth           

                                                               - dustless in the stillness   -

to my womb, my arms, my breast.

 

 

You     who is within

                                    /           sensing sunlight

from this same                        shared  body. 

 

 

Through my skin                        sunned and swollen with you,

strong as your Noongar namesake, 

the size of an avocado            –         or then again, 

                                                                                          a boab            –

listening to the kookaburras

and of course, already knowing

                                                    their language.

 

 

I will cradle you                      in the rapids 

                                                                  –       forehead ochred          – 

in the water of the earth

                                                that conceived you.

 

 

I will guide you through the smoke

                                                        of new green leaves

as the desert-quandong crimson of your blood 

pools from your placenta                    

                                          which we bury 

so Country

knows you       have arrived.

 

 

And when you do       arrive

I will show you the 

                                    

                                 yarta

                                           tirntu

                                                      yarlu

                                                                 purli

                                  earth

                                            sun

                                                     ocean

                                                                stars                 

                     

   

And by that,                I mean

                                    I will show you

that you are home.

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