The Hills Are There Again Today

Six hundred million years
or more
these hills
so still,
have spun
around our sun

Each day
tree-spotted flanks submit
to heat
or wind
or rain

Reefs of rocks
break through the slopes
old scabs
from ancient fire
inviting lightning strikes

Cloud shadows
give a slow caress
to hips and thighs
of summer hills

Unerringly,
unravelled skeins
of sheep tracks
map the safest paths

Raptors ride
the thermals
as the hills exhale;
the oom of bronzewing pigeons
keeps the pulse

Today the hills
are cleavages:
a moss of green
down in the gorge

Six hundred million years
or so
these hills have ranged
this valley round ...

Susan O’Brien lives half of her time off the grid overlooking the gorge of the Finniss River and the other half in Adelaide’s CBD. Since recent semi-retirement from medical practice as a GP with a specific interest in mental health, she has started to capture her poems on the page, writing about what the natural world may present. A particular associated delight is South Australia’s produce, in its wines, olives and other Mediterranean fruits. As well as on InDaily, her poems have appeared in Friendly Street anthologies, and she has read at the Coriole vineyard and on 101.5 FM Radio Adelaide’s Gastronaut program.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.