Sheila Spargo

Here children of the rainbow serpent meet
Beneath gnarled gum trees in the riverbed.
Dry, shifting shingle rasps beneath their feet
As they approach with slow, deliberate tread.

Look upward! Soaring high above the range
With mesmerising ease, great eagles fly
Diminishing our human cares to strange
Irrelevance beneath that infinite sky.

Now sunburned tourists from their coaches dart,
Complaining to each other of the heat.
Visit the Flying Doctor, view some art,
Then, craving air-conditioning, retreat.

In the red dust their patterned footprints stay
Until the next hot wind sweeps them away.