Great Southern Stand Poem by Danny Draper

Safety Bay Road 16 km,
Down thrust beetles 
radiant cream light spines 
strung suspended festoons in 
die light, above Kwinana Freeway's
Tattered Tuart fraying swathe
Against Indian Ocean sunset's dusty 
ochre-russet grainy haze of
Stirling Ranges early spring fires
Whisk quickening expired ashen breath
to alien Baobabs.

Freesias obtusely gather  
proffer onion spiced pleading,  
offering amenity for acceptance 
grasping conceited tolerance,
above darkening leaf litter scabs of
xenophobic taxa in hydrophobic soil,  
invading assemblages of endemic precision
Kings Park plantings.

Argyle Adansonia, Gigi blessing
Swan-Canning confluence 
Expanse to mouth in Leeuwin's lips,   
'neath exposed hillside command,
Stand blooms 'to action,  
Memorial plantings wend away. 
Removed from range,
Bifurcated in vital course
Wounds attest journey,
Tentatively clench, then
Strategically colonise
Adapted and enlightened 
Cold southern soil,  
Resigned to unlikely outpost, in
Resiling aching truth of
Contemplated aeons;
Boab dynamically seethes,  
 fearless in longevity. 

Danny Draper 9/9/2012