Wilderness

i.

Softly offering purple-blue
the waterlilies hold flowers
up from the still water:

sedge grows full-bodied, and rich
on the vlei-banks. Laughing doves call,
tender and tranquil.

The cottage there: smoke rising
from the chimney stack
– fat bellied, happy smoke –

and my pastoral mind
drifts with it, takes its hue
into the grey and livelong sky.

ii.

It’s the sort of day when
mists match your mood,

the old Australian gums
stand tall and still,

the white cliffs that streak
the mountains match the sky,

the sedge around the vlei
is green, and dead still:

sounds seem to sound distant
– dove-calls throb my pulse.

 – Brian Walter