Conversations Under Grandmother Tree
I always call big old trees with spreading arms Grandmother.... and big old tall ones Grandfather... silly me, really but it stems from a day, nearly 40 yrs ago now, when I sat under a tree with an indigenous girl, whose name has faded from memory ; she told me stories of her people, Dreamtime Stories handed down from generation to generation. I may have forgotten her name but I shall never forget her. I fished for barramundi (a fish) and ate witchedy grubs with her and watched the slow moving river grumble along past our feet...
‘Neath Grandmother Tree
forty year old
memories
drift
floating
into present day
smiling
innocent
memories
two girls
bond in play…
fishing for barramundi
by a slow moving
river
that grumbled past their feet
searching under thick bark
witchedy grubs to eat…
a tale of ebony and ivory
long before the song
was sung
two girls
playing in the bush
their souls
were as one…
teaching each other
of two worlds
the worlds of
me and she
sitting ‘neath
the cooling shade
of old Grandmother tree…
Sharonlee©
12-Jul-11
White-Girl-Who-Not-White
the day was hot & humid
summer storms
building in layers
of heavy cloud
pregnant with unfallen rain…
rain today
I asked
wiping sweat
from my nut-brown face…
nope, ‘morrow maybe
she replied
her yawn exposing
teeth of purest white
in a face as black as night
you not like dem
white girls in town
she said
dem ones read Dolly
at milk-bar
and paint their nails
and giggle like sick
kookaburra…
you not like them
aborigine girls in town
I grinned
they copy white girls
and giggle at the jackaroos
and flutter eyes like
sick cow…
our laughter tumbled
up into the branches
of Grandmother Tree
who rustled her leaves
at our gossip
with good-natured
disapproval….
you think any quandong
are ripe
I asked
nope, we ete ‘em all
yesterday….
she shook her head
you still got much
to learn
white-girl-who-not-white
she laughed…
we both laughed then
out loud like
healthy kookaburra
SWIM!
we screeched
chasing each other
into the slow moving
water of
the River….
sharonlee©
14-Jul-11
jackaroos - Male trainee worker on a cattle or sheep station
quandong- Australian tree with edible flesh and edible nutlike seed
******************************************************************************
Lullaby Lyrics
perfection
in scattered shades
of filigree jade…
shadows overlaid
with late afternoon
sunshine that stills time…
creating intrinsic
patterns
in branches
and leaves
rustling
soft melodies
within the stanza
of a faintly stirring breeze
lullaby lyrics whisper softly
of seasons past
and seasons yet to come
as I sit ‘neath
this grandmother tree
to await
the setting sun…
sharonlee©
11-Jul-11
