Mud from a Chattering Creek

Inspired by this story: ABC News

this mud, you say, came from yonder creek
all frothing brown tea and gentle chatter 
among cicada's fierce racket and spearing acacia

this mud, you say, wandered in 18,000 years ago 
on the feet of wasps, as busily they tessellated
their bulbous home, 3D printing on this shaggy wall

this mud, you say, witnessed people arriving
imagine ropy silhouettes in the cave's entrance
the smell of fire and sweat, the sound of bare feet

and then noticeably ochre still, a bisecting line
through the insects' hexes - hark the scrape of rock and 
trickle of carted water and the sweet deliberation of art

yes, people writing history, swept over the waspian castle
in the descriptive arch of a kangaroo's back, oh great horizon,
the wasps long since fled, to build and build again.

but then,  they returned as seasons dictated, six legs
craving six sides and six sides growing six thousand years
(perhaps) since first they built here and finding still

a comfort on that same piece of wall across that 
glowing red reminder of the people's embers.
And all this ...  told in mud from yonder chattering creek.