Ghost Gums

GHOST GUMS


A National Symbol and Secular Icon
So long-grown it jubilees off Namatjira's pallette;
So that the McDonnell Ranges' real ghost gums
One finds hardly rate.

As if the artist's gift made a too-populist icon
Has set up such a brush-struck imagined perfect;
That the actual trees you set eyes on
Light up in their defect.