Arnhem Land brumby.

While wheeling blood-wing parrots screech

over wind-raised, drifting devil's dust,

a brumby browses in the dusk

through desert-scribbling salt-bush scrub.

He rests until the sun flames up,

golden in his wise-wild eyes,

then shadow-stepping, drawn along,

shying, his keen hoofs slice a snake

--rainbow coiled in scaly poison--

beside Jingana billabong.

Enigmatic Mimi spirits

with orange-plumed pandanus bands,

two-pronged spears and goose-wing fans,

leap down, chanting from Obiri,

to lure the brumby into water.

Here hock-deep in heaven's blue,

in summer's unforgiving light,

his head goes down to taste the sun

--afloat near lily symmetry--

while sacred ibis rise in flight.

At Jingana the wounded snake

coils itself around itself,

forming eternal sand circles

Notes:

Rainbow Snake: According to Aboriginal mythology, the Rainbow Snake inspires ferocious awe.

Jingana: An Aboriginal word for a Rainbow Snake and also for a billabong which is considered by some Aborigines to be the permanent home of The Rainbow Snake.

Mimis: Red ochre figures painted on the Obiri rocks in Arnhem Land.