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red gum reverie

I  

fingers stained in rust and ochre,  

I press against the heartwood’s seam,  

where scarlet bark curls back like flame.  

Each layer sings a silent chronicle,  

echoing footfalls of lives long gone,  

rooted deep beneath my own.

II  

I move among these iron-red columns,  

their broad limbs reaching heavenward—  

cathedrals scribed in peeling hues.  

I listen for the drumbeat of sap,  

rustling hidden hymns beneath my hand,  

each pulse a covenant of time.

III  

In midday’s fervor I recall  

the first taste of earth upon my tongue,  

dry dust mingled with salt of sweat.  

Here, under boomerang arcs of sky,  

I learn the weight of memory,  

pressed into rings of remembrance.

IV  

A whisper drifts through cracked bark seams—  

the voice of some old wandering soul,  

calling across the stretch of years.  

I pause, ankles sunk in red clay,  

and hum the low, unbroken tune  

that binds all seekers to this place.

V  

When evening spills its purple veil,  

I stand enfolded in embered glow,  

the forest’s breath laid soft around me.  

I carry its reverie like lit coals,  

wherever my footsteps wander next—  

an ember-heart of red gum home.

walking beneath a crimson-barked river red gum