The Ancient Heart

In the morning, I rolled over in my swag to face the burning east sky 

And gazed up at the planets in perfect alignment,

Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter suspended in the vast heavens, alight with orange fire.

As I felt the warmth of the sunburnt country beneath the bare skin of my palm,

I remembered how that night I made a wish on the evening star,

As the milky way strode across the velvet night above,

Constant as the turning of the Earth and the changing of the seasons.

When the sun became high in the turquoise sky,

I stretched my arms towards the desert oaks rising from the blood red plains,

Brown kangaroos stopping to drink from sweet waterholes,

Sleepy goannas bathing in golden sunlight, great emus walking through spinifex,

Slithering snakes amidst the gentle murmurs of the Western desert.

I knelt down on the iron soil and laid my hand on the prehistoric rock,

Tears in my eyes, as I felt its powerful pulse, living and breathing beneath my touch.

Here on Aṉangu country, people and creatures live in harmony as they have done for tens of thousands of years,

The Tjukupa stories live on through the Dreaming, the passing of generations, the passages of time,

As the ancient heart of Australia breathes life into the land.