mungo winter reflectionsthe blue sky reveals fossils on remorseless clouds when the wind blows their vertebrae of feathered ivory unfurl & fade pale spring ease becomes cold grey rant at our camp we watch gilded ochre wilt while night expands trees quiver an opal moon rises black on brown shadows fossils sigh their outlines radiate old stories in their bones fossils exhale their breaths become fogs and tides of this ancient lake where oldman saltbush thrives allays the false promise of a green drought© Margaret Pentland 2003