peter jerrim

among our hills
girls test tumorous devils

their dreads their PhDs their
soothing chat while they

weigh, measure, take
blood, mucus, hair, check

tags
satellite data

then release them from the hessian
bags they’d calmed them in

video
the hesitancy (sniff the air)

then the speed
with which they disappear

when the girls go
they call down to the house

adios
and

they’re replaced by
shadows

the old people
saunter back, the blank bush

flicks in
to life

and the past drops
dizzy at our feet a ten gram

silvereye that’s just flown
1600 k

returning south from Queensland
hola little dude

just as pretty
as last year

you’ve survived for now
the point three quadrillion dollar

debt pump that keeps us
humans going at your expense

unlike us
you’re still wholly

here
now while

we owe the world
and the world owns us