Knock Knock! Hello, anybody home?

Where are they? Have they all moved?

I don’t think they will return

The cobwebs are entrenched

Does anyone know where have they gone?

They used to fish here,

tell us stories,

tame the land

Is it true?

That their eviction notice was written in red

Dripping slowly, soaking through the landscape

Bloody terracotta mosaics?

I heard about the new landlords

who came here to steal in peace,

with their drunken slurs of rum

crooked diplomacy, muskets in hand

Ancient pigments paint the arid land

Swirling whispers rattling,

Forgotten voices, through the dry flax

The rainbow serpent has shed her skin

Her shriveled scales have dissolved

Her path is still there, but we must look hard

Underneath the churches, below multi-storeyed car parks

Past the stadiums, through the shopping boutiques

On chilly nights she can still be heard

Is anybody home?