Wollongong To Wagga, & A-Dog by Freddy Iryss
Wollongong To Wagga
Angus cattle, huddling together
Trees and marshland immersed
Around them
A sea of fog
Stony creek, Kangaroo and wallaby by the wayside
Crows having a feast
Shorn sheep shivering on bald hills
Cattle grazing in the ditch
Under the watchful eye of a cowgirl,
In the saddle all day long on a dark mare smoking a cigarette,
Harden, the name
And a place of becoming
Sunshine
Melting away the frost on the window pane
Dew
Lingering In the corners and the coat of Illamas
Sheep
Like the boulders, part of the landscape
Congregating on the top of the hill
Gundagai
Hills
Like waves frozen in time
Folds and creases
Showing their age
Poets Recall - Motel
On the horizon
M for McDonald's
People claiming the landscape
Wee Jasper
You funny man!
Every other rest area
Relief
Fairy Hole creek
A writer’s journey
Bango Creek
Memory of water leaving an impression behind
Rock Lodge Road
Somewhere to upload the boulders?
Or unload the heaviness of fatigue?
Gunning
Native plant regeneration
Rocky sculptures
Of countless sheep
Others like sentry on the hill
Looking over the land
The wind farms
Slicing through the air with blades like
Knights with unwavering precision
The wind howling
In protest
Breadalbane
Horses watering on a billabong
- Are we there yet?
A-Dog
You run up the hill like it’s nothing
I follow, slowly,
catching my breath
I can’t keep up
Your strong, muscly legs propel you through foot-long grass
cutting invisible corners
around trees before
you come back running downhill
towards me, effortless
We call you ‘horse’
as you gallop
down the meadows,
in long strides g
aining ground
effortless you take the country under foot
I’m scared you won’t stop
dart into me like a cannon ball,
90 pounds breaking my bones
You’re nearly here. I stop. Hold my breath.
Unblinking
I wait until you reach me
With the precision of a knife-thrower
you race past me
I can feel the wind whip my legs
Breathing I slump onto my knees
you take a 360
bowl me over, gently
I hug you like I hug no one else
and you let me
After
we sit side by side,
I - watching the birds in the tree
you - looking for deer to chase
We sit
until the sun burns into our backs
we start going back
We walk along the suburban remnants of the bush
back to our street
You run ahead
knowing the way
I follow
You disappear from sight
my steps get smaller
I no longer try to keep up
I turn into our drive way
go ‘round the house
into the backyard
our private piece of forest
with tall gum trees towering over silver wattles and ferns
I make my way through blackberries
ripping the skin of my legs
until I reach the clearing
You - are nowhere to be seen
and I sit down, beside your grave
I cannot follow where you are now
Not yet.
Executive Producers
Karolina Ristevski
Daniel Henson
Sue White
