Above Agnes Falls
the hills tube, porpoise-playful,
muscular-leaping round each other,
wreathing, curve-forming
the rolling Strzelecki Ranges.

They hummock and knoll,
rising plaited loaves -
Sabbath Challot*,
though no Manna* on offer.
Only blackwood and blue gum -
buttery limbed and sprinkled
with lemon, sage and pepper.

Pools, shadowy-bruised,
platypus-dark and ominous-gravid
brooding-bitumen-flow
to fall's shale-lipped edge
m
   a  
c
   r
a
   m
é
down
waft and weft and knot,
tied tight in places, in others
loose-silky-threaded
fine and fly-away
ice-white Nordic hair
or Lipizzaner* pride-tossed mane.

                        I...

                        I will come again,
                        alone

                        to this scared place of sandstone
                        monoliths, Avebury-reminiscent.

I will squeeze tight sleepless eyes,
sigh anxiety away, let consciousness stream and bead-
ride
the tumult

down.

*Challah (Challot - plural) is a special Jewish braided bread eaten on Sabbath and holidays.
*Manna - pun, biblical Manna from heaven associated with Challah but Oz also has a Manna gum tree.
*Lipizzaner - is a white breed of horse closely associated with the Spanish Riding School of Vienna although the horses are actually bred and trained in Slovenia.