Something That Feels Like a Fossil
I am going back again tomorrow
I want to find something I can touch
make rubbings of
I already have a large chunk of cream paint
that fell on our drive the night of the fire
I put it in a bottle with some blackened leaves and
a bird feather and a small shard of
National Geographic / charred brown
that I had kept after the fires
to make something of it
I planned a collage on growth and rebirth
furred gums / Banksia sprouts / grass trees
all rising up from my blackened leaves
but later I read in a newspaper
that someone had done it already
and I have taken no more measures to preserve
my tokens
before long they will moulder
in their own dust
age and decay
but this was not a slow gathering of tired bones taken off
to a quiet part of the forest
no crust of aged metal
corrosion flaking off of rocks
this was fire
white hot
the stuff of raw life
dying hard
erasing traces
(C) Pat Pillai