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| 'Pigface sprawls succulent on vacant blocks ...' |
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| Photo by Merrill Findlay, Altona, 1996. |
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| A remnant grassland conserved as a buffer zone between suburbia and an industrial site at Altona. |
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| Photo by Merrill Findlay, 1996. |
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Growing alongside Truganina
- ‘the swamp’ in 1970 –
where frogs croak
under dark grey loam
found with brown coal
in backyard diggings
Larvae of the Emperor
Gum Moth moves
like plump green fingers
Pigface sprawls succulent
on vacant blocks
Melaleuca paperbarks
peel on nature-strips
outlying streets cut
across tawny paddocks
of tussock, thistle
and basalt rock
‘New Australians’
climb field fences
on Sunday to harvest
‘weeds’ as we
feast on roast
potatoes, lamb and
peas
Seagrass washed
to the shore
rots in layers
so deep, so long
thongs are lost
in black muck
when retrieving
sinking feet
Timber train carriages
in Apex playground
magazine jetty with
burns and rusted
tracks over the sea
a corrugated fence
guarded explosives and
keeps the mystery
History is quiet
with subtle leads
wanting to follow
the water’s edge
continuing the curve
into Werribee
Wide miles of
winnowing grass
grace the ‘Meadows’
where lone wolf
eucalypts stand brave
on a subdivided plain
no house, no road
yet disturbs
the brown snake
Growing alongside Truganina
and aggressive industry
schoolfriends are Italian,
Dutch, Maltese
the land – already
so shackled –
could only whisper
of volcano and
Aborigine
Posted 3 September 2003
Copyright Janine Whyte, 2003
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