Rock Ferns

ROCK FERNS

The word is nestled,
one could say coddled
even cuddled, ie, caressed
in the crevasses of shadow,
and comforted in the shade
of raised stone, thank God
for the raised stone, out
of the unremitting sun, it's
how you survive out here,
how you get to stay alive;
you camp in watered nooks,
locate into the rare niche,
lodge yourself in the exception
where the rule is too much,
far too harsh, as is raised
red Ayer's Rock, or any other
standing solid mass casting shade
by which the like of Uluru rock ferns
can spy out the glitches in clime
well south of the sun, to settle
together in thin locations where
spore-born fronds can be unfurled
like intelligence with fingers.

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Photo: Rock Ferns at Uluru, 1995