Picking up Zenella

There's a rag in the road. You think it's a child's toy. You get closer. It's a bundle of rags. There's a rag in the road and you think that if a car ran over it, it might skid.

The sun is almost down, we all have our lights on. The sun is sunk in the sky and we all are finding our way home or away. Wherever we just were, we are not there, and wherever we will be, we won't stay.

The mall smells of Australia. Can't explain, you had to be there. And if you were there, wow, we'd be laughing about it now.

But you weren't.

The trees were bright and full of colour when I went through the lane. And a smell of burning and I was thinking, if it came up the road, that's how you get trapped. If it came up the road, there'd be nowhere to go. But you'd drive across the open fields till you found another road. If there is another road, but of course there is, this country is crisscross with roads.

And there are, what are they, herons or something, something like grebes, something like long-necked birds with long legs, sitting in the floodway. I roar through like vengeance.

There are birds with long legs flying into the blue sky as I roar through like the juggernaut. I think, what if I hit one, I'd regret it. I don't have any glee at the thought of a bird derailing me today. I am confusing my car with airplanes or the bird with a roo.

I think I see a roo, just the flash of grey, at the side of the road, under a tree, in the branches of a tree that reach down to the road, just for a moment, just a flash of grey, just for the brief moment.

Did you ever see a ghost? Just at the edge of vision, something moving, and you're sure it's there, not just

Wait, wait, we are waiting, waiting by the door in the night with the light spilling out, washing over the dark night, washing it away, all the light spilling over us, and I have something sweet and lonely in my ears, a brittle melody, a song of love

and there she is. I see her and I know what love is. I know that this will end, one day on some hot road, out in a floodway, I'll hit a bird, my car cartwheels and I'm gone forever, but until that day

until that day

DR

posted by Dr Zen @ 9:05 pm