Coral Hull: Featured Poet

NOTE

"would have left" "a note for you" "whilst you slept"
"so many things" "I could" "have done" "but had to run"
"and be damned" "through the rocky paddock" "the
granite outcrops" "stretched" "my ankle muscle" "in the

opposite direction" "to how it" "operates" "today you
rested" "whilst I flew" "the clouds were blowing south"
"down the mountain" "as if everything" "was operating"
"backwards/forwards" "properties have a stretch to

them" "it's in the way" "the wind moves down" "the
slopes" "the grasses" "and the shrubs" "the trees"
"lean" "towards that stretch" "the animals" "are blown"
"towards that stretch" "even the fences" "are built"

"down that stretch" "without the builders" "knowing it"
"this goes on" "and on" "it is the story" "of time" "for
now" "this stretch" "with the wind" "the mountains"
"skies" "air currents" "where the birds are stretched" "in

their flight" "stars emanate" "stretch light" "they arc the
sky" " throughout" "the evening" "that is clear" "bright"
"windy" "they hang" "in all the different trees" "the
stars select" "the tree" "to hitch to" "they will be fruit"

"they are night fruit" "they illuminate" "the tree" "move
in" "from that" "they come to the earth" "with old light"

TAP

"tap facing" "into the grass" "crickets" "frogs" "tap"
"like the head" "of a horse" "poised" "still" "cold and
majestic" "tap" "never moving tap" "tap" "trapped inside
itself" "never moving" "in the rain" "never

moving" "all summer long" "it was a long summer" "our
longest ever" "the flies" "the tap" "the grass trembling"
"around the tap" "grass thicker" "than skin" "the grass"
"the thick" "bright green" "grass moistened"

"by the tap" "the grass living" "and dying" "in the night"
"the morning" "insects" "all the insects living" "dying"
"around the tap" "that never lives" "or dies" "the tap"
"that faces" "the wild dandelions" "that spring up" "and

knock down" "like the knock-down grasses" "inside the
gale" "the wind" "your hair" "your last smile" "here"
"has carried me" "forwards" "by the grey scarecrow"
"the apple tree" "no apples now" "but the great brown

horses" "who own" "the mystery" "of this paddock"
"paddock" "in their image" "like all great paddocks"
"inhabited" "by horses" "the grace of horses" "they own
each other" "their sun" "in the mornings" "their calm

places" "out of the wind" "their open gates" "and leafy"
"oily dams" "the waterbirds" "oh" "the dark lovely
crow" "lonelier" "than the evening" "more company"
"finally us" "the tap" "nestled" "into the pipes" "of the

house" "pipes" "the backbone" "of the tap" "the only
bone" "that will never release us" "the tap" "with frost"
"is still" "stiller" "than a field" "of frost" "stiller"
"stiller than birds" "before a winter downpour" "on dark" "the

tap" "it is rusty" "cold" "yet it persists" "here" "as itself"
"give this tap" "warmth" "the warmth of your gaze"
"give it" "your innocence" "it will not harm you" "give
the tap" "your curiosity" "questions" "the absolute

place" "you share" "in time" "with it" "your backbone"
"your stillness" "and uneventuating dreams" "your
child's life" "your loss" "the weariness" "of your hands"

SNAKE

"there was a story" "through the mountains" "of a
serpent" "who had passed there" "dragging them" "into
being" "this was the low table ranges" "of Rylstone"
"Kandos" "the serpent's tail" "had merely touched these

stones" "had slashed them" "to the side" "with a dim
flicker" "how many lives" " have I lived through?" "is
this just another one?" "its fleeting" "barely creating" "a
ripple" "like wheels along gravel" "that never leave"

"the edges" "this is just one" "of many properties and
scenes" "I'm tired" "and yet" "here" "I loved you" "but
for how long?" "how?" "are you prepared?" "to spend"
the rest of your life here?" "with the property

inhabitants?" "this place" "inhabits itself" "seems to ask"
"nothing more" "than its perpetual change" "its stories"
"it lives" "fully inside" "all its moments" "is still enough
to register" "to graze and glide" "and it's

sleep" "as gentle as a calf" "it's growing horns" "all the
way up" "in the back paddock" "it's fearless" "as it lives
and dies" "all over the place" "how must I learn from
it?" "without galloping away" "into the sky?" "what can

the mountain say now?" "it is strange" "how oddly
trapped" "one can feel" "even in the wind" "and rain" "it
is odd" "to feel" "trapped" "when looking" "at distance"
"or into the eyes" "of your loved ones" "even if" "I was

a bird" "there is only" "so much terrain" "I could
navigate" "before I landed" "trapped" "by my own
exhaustion" "my heartbeat" "inside" "the small feathered
breasts" "there is always" "a new landscape"

"beyond this" "I go to it" "have you ever walked" "to the
mountain?" "over there" "that giant rock" "passed by the
snake" 'last night?" "no" "that is a long way off" "it's
five kilometres away" "why must I see this" "as another

brief experience" "rather than living in the present?" "I
have lived" "a lifetime" "in every experience" "release
me" "from your memory"

KANGAROO

"she" "had not even tried" "to move" "her bony white
body" "into the clover" "that had come" "after rain"
"it was the old mother" "who had been hanging
around" "with the joey" "why do you think" "she came" "in so

close" "to the house" "to die" "was she lonely?" "as if a
kangaroo" "doesn't get lonely" "like us" "apart" "or
together" "we" "two lonely people" "was it
something" "inside her" "that brought her to the gate" "of the small

cottage?" "picture" our small cottage" "our place of
loneliness" "of togetherness" "a dot" "out in the frosty
fields" "even we" "were cold" "cold as taps" "the water
iced up" "in the pipes" "the guttering" "stretching itself"

"a long and creaking stretch" "a cat's old back"
"arching" "railways sleepers" "big highways" "this
relief" "from ice" "all the night" "when the ice was
endless" "dark" "like we had forgotten" "everything" "a

relief" "from clear winter skies" "stars" "so many stars"
"and not a kangaroo" "amongst them" "we were cold"
"as her dying" "as though the winter sky" "was shining"
"its icy stars" "down through the roof" "she" "didn't

move" "far" "on her last night" "she didn't need to" "a
greater movement was occurring" "within her" "the
birds" "took her eyes" "all the birds" "not long" "after
dawn" "with the sun" "came the scavengers" "the farm"

"does not waste" "it utilizes everything" "deliciously" "a
strip of flesh" "was dragged from her mouth" "she was
cold" "stone" "dead" "so soft" "this ancient departure"

COWS

"black angus" "cows" "are not lazy" "feeders" "they will
wander" "the paddocks" "migratory" "hierarchical" "they
will stay here" "forever" "like you" "johnny" "who
would not kill them now" "for johnny had said"

"he would never kill" "those few last cows" "the fog
clears" "we receive cows" "dark angels" "they emerge"
"from mist" "where the eucalyptus" "drown" "they call"
"this place" "their own" "a cow" "can be heard"

"downwind" "forever" "this brilliant morning" "they
lived" "they held it" "like a cow would" "in the sway"
"of the velvet hips" "some cattle" "who know this place"
"have the breeze" "as a body" "the boulders as hearts"

"their milk lines" "of mothers and calves" "like streams"
"flooding the sunlight" "this is first light" "after the
magpies sang" "the big mob of cows" "were the first"
"to receive the sun" "at Rylstone" "on their fat black

backs!" "i stood before them" "those black nuns" "who
did not want me there" "without johnny" "so i didn't stay
long" "the lines of light and shadow" "blew down the
slope" "being the hoofs of the cows" "bringing the

hoofs to my feet" "we all stood along the hill" "like
whispers" "bellowing" "in the broad daylight" "it was as
though we were standing" "alongside" "a giant free
falling wheel" "propelled by sun" "birdsong" "that

rotated the bands of light and shadow" "to where we
stood" "and back into the wide blue sky" "this light from
the cows is coming towards me" "in rotational bands"
"along the complex timeline" "of the Rylstone property"

"and all its aqua grasses" "the native grasses" "and the
introduced grasses" "in the foothills" "of the mountains"