Waterhole Tank Reflections

WATERHOLE TANK REFLECTIONS


Starglow beckons on the well skin
And earth is luminous, with the Southern
Cross in the above and the below.

Sheens of light tack under our feet.
East is a burnish before the light
As wind-vanes counterpoint blown sky.

Swallow bottlenests under upturned cars
Are hanging-mud drawn of edge-water
Finally abandoned to breed wings.

Waterholes: portholes of contemplation
Places where hearts are drawn out
Into grace that springs from space.

Eternity breaks eggs of the moment
And leaps out of gravity in time
Through such bottomless skies.


- Kunoth Well, Tanami Track, Northern Territory

- with appreciation of how rare surface water will be here, with the ripples of its exception stills, the beauty of rare surface water still alluring for the mind after taking stock of the experiences of The Bubbler, Blanche Cup, Coward Springs, Ellery Creek Bighole, Glen Helen, and The Alice Springs