Standley Chasm to Trephina Gorge, aerial view

Standley Chasm to Trephina Gorge, aerial view

James Orrock

Sun glissades a minute crack in time
and cycads fizz in slotted space
as milk-smooth dolerite boulders incubate
in the yoked light and shade;
from Cain to Kabul nature devours grace -
we cannot get ourselves back to the Garden.

Magma squeezed up has twinned Tjoritja
hissed, spat then brazed the MacDonnell range
interstice, stilled motion-melt;
Angkerle Atwatye, the gap of water
opens out, offers safe passage
beside bug-frenzied algal pool.

Simpsons Gap retreats among triodia
mohawk-punk spines protecting the curious
smiles of black-footed rock-wallaby;
Lutheran Mission was refuge for the Arrernte
from speared cattle frontier struggle
so hymns rang out atop Mount Hermannsburg.

Dried mud rammed inside hollow river red gum
last Yeperenye flood time has hooked
twigs and bark angled by eucalypt nooks;
leaves flutter down snipped by green parrot
beaks pecking raucous canticles
at this caterpillar dreaming place.

Above furrows of rock ploughed
in tilted sine waves holly grevillea,
emu bush and chaotic silver mallee
outline Trephina Gorge arena
set in the deep-sand riverbed;
John Hayes Rockhole bows in adoration.

Spinifex splashed with biscuity-black scat
like cured hashish (pointy is rock wallaby,
rounded is euro) maps a prickly trail
to naked Corroboree Rock,
cinnabar-brown felspar crown set down
on the shoulders of an entombed avatar.

Hawking dot paintings at the hotel bar
an outsider in town for a spree
squatting, slips on piss in Todd Street.

---

James Orrock
Retired Tax Collector & Sinner

James has been published in Studio, Quadrant, Eureka Street and Wavelength Magazine. He is also an occasional writer of letters to Quadrant and the Catholic Weekly. He does not have an online presence.

Photography by Alesan Aboafash