I open my mouth

and sunlight

streams through with the sound of parrots

light rain

wet on my tongue

I find it difficult to see these waterways and redgums without thing of what was, and who came before, and who is no longer here, not obviously anyway with the land sales and the treechangers looking for a new life outside the city bounds. I long for days where indigenous voices are listened to again. They were, once - they would help navigate the waterways, showing settlers ways to transport themselves and their goods from sea to inland. There were fish traps and eel traps and yet we were told they were savages, had no agriculture, agriculture. The truths are surfacing, now - its good.

“We were soon on the bank of the Barwon (River), where the native with his tomahawk cut a large piece of bark from a tree, and in less time than it takes me to tell, placed it on the water, laid me on it, and plunged into the river beside me.”

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^{Acacia - Wattle, of which there are hundreds of varieties, with flowers from deep yellows to (rare) crimsons and pale whites. The seeds were used as a rich source of protein and carbohydrate, especially in times of drought, and were crushed to make bread or damper.}

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You have puffs of wattle in your beard

cold hands

You zip up my jacket

point at things, joyous

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^{Solanum laciniatum (Kangaroo Apple) - anti-inflammatory - treats aching joints and wounds, encourages the renewal of skin on scarring and pigmentation. Fruits - when very ripe - are edible, and are sometimes made into jams. Green fruits are poisonous.}

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We are always looking for edible things, medicinal things. It's funny that we always have some complaint or another - hayfever, rashes, tension, sore throats. The land provides but only if you study, and look, and wonder.

I don't want to leave

the damp banks beckon

the trees say I'm one of them

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^{Urtica dioica: Stinging Nettle. Contains many vitamins, is an anti-inflammatory and may treat hayfever, and like cleavers, is a natural diuretic.}

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This place is new, for us. So many river red gums just make us feel awestruck. Some date back to settlement. Cockatoos, magpies and lorikeets fight amongst their branches. Here birds learn to fly. Their song soothes better than valium. I want to stay and study the land and it's healing things a while. But leave we have to - we haven't left enough time to rewild ourselves, so domesticated are we by deadlines and chores, the demands of those that want us to respond. I envy the trees their silence, the birds their easiness in flying away from the things that don't concern them.

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