My Morning

nature, Personal Reflection 1 Minute

When we reached the trig station, I took a wrong turn. We headed down a ridge, winding out of the trees and into land that must’ve once been pine forest but was cleared at least a few years ago. It was now full of purple-green blackberry mounds, stringy little saplings, the splayed denuded heads of Scotch thistles and waist high grass still awash with summer’s seeding.

On the path, a thick fungus of some sort, pink and extraordinary, had fisted up like a volcano through an ants’ nest. The ground was cracked around its base, making way. I wondered what the ants saw beneath the surface.

Cresting a small rise, a huge dead tree hove into view – white as bones on the mattress-ripple sky. Two white cockatoos sat mute and ruffled on its outer branches, preening lazily. Another disappeared into a large hollow and even from fifty metres away, I could hear its beak working, working on the dry old timber. The dog ran forward suddenly and I called him off a ‘roo and her joey who disappeared into the thick undergrowth.

Five lorikeets darted in and placed themselves around the old tree like bright flowers suddenly sprouted. I smiled up at them, marvelling at how even dead things still support a kind of ecosystem.

 ghost-white parrots on dead limbs
             ancient marrow still nourishes
       my old selves creak

Written for Go Dog Go Cafe Haibun Wednesday “YOUR MORNING” – the prompt by Donna Matthews

Published by abigfatcanofworms

We all walk in the dark. But if we hold hands, perhaps the dark won't be as scary.

Published

26 thoughts on “My Morning”

    1. Dogs chase ‘roos like they chase rabbits or alpacas or sheep… some dogs do it with intent to attack. Some just chase whatever runs. Pretty sure Oscar has no idea what he’d do if he actually got close to a roo but their movement excites him. My dog I had as a teenager had a more predatory streak in her. Once, during a drought, I took her for a walk along the river (which was just small pools then) where Mum and Dad live now. She and my Dad’s dog chased a roo. To my surprise the roo hopped into one of the pools. I thought “Oh no! The dogs are bound to get it now”. But in the water, the roo stopped and faced them. And when my dog swam up to it and grabbed the skin of its neck, the roo held her with both its arms and bowed over so my dog’s head ended up under water. She had to let go or drown. My dog was shy of chasing roos for a while after that.

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      2. The big roos are as big as humans – the red males in particular. But the Eastern greys we have around here aren’t that big – well the internet says they can get up to 1.5metres (and around 60kgs) so I guess that’s big. But the females are smaller.

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      4. Oh I side with the galahs then. Surely trees are more the home of galahs than cars. I don’t like ppl begrudging the wild life urban space. We invaded their space. Not the other way around. Anyway, that’s my soap box.

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  9. Pingback: Haibun Wednesday, March 16, 2022 | Go Dog Go Café

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