Reverie

In the moist-soft-hush of the Dorrigo rainforest I pause beneath branches.
Palm to trunk; the rough brown fabric of the brushbox strangely soft against skin.

Lophostemon confertus: rising like hope from the forest floor to an embroidered sky haphazardly stitched in leaf on blue linen.

I stare along its dizzying length. Its vertiginous straightness
a foil for my spirit’s slow unravelling

disentangling of the self; untamed and unbroken.
Trapped in suspended animation like a web-spun insect,

breath upon breath. Heartbeat-echo of Gondwana
beneath the softly rotting leaf litter.