Halls Creek

The barbed wire fence will slit your legs like a shaving cut,

Only noticed once it stains your socks 

You wade through the lea,
The dry grass catching your clothes 

The surge of the river fills between the gum roots,
Portraying roles within the red soil 

The earth beneath me, connecting me to those who have stepped here once before
The current burbling against the river bed, rippling over the moss-covered rocks
Repulsive, blood sucking leeches wriggle within the stream,

You don't think twice.

Lure close, treading along the side of the inlet. 

A misstep, your heart will sink like your feet in the mud

It is all so ethereal, 

Delicate, holding my life within its grasp 

Impalpable.