DESERTED

By Caitlyn Gibbs

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This piece is a preview of the upcoming book ‘Unearthed,’ this year’s edition of the UC FIRST Anthology, which launches on the 16th of October 2024.

Lonely bones, sun-bleached and red-dirt stained, 

Almost dust in the shade of eucalypt leaves, 

No tooth or claw marks, no evidence of maim; 

Bear only the sigh of once-in-a-moon breeze. 

This viscous oppressive light, too heavy to hold, 

That strips all life and spirit from ruddy eyes. 

Its limbs curl and clutch and linger like mould 

And wring water from mirages that mesmerise. 

The screaming of spirits through cicada call 

Warn us, they warned us, and we did not heed, 

Across the red-dirt-desolate we fall 

Crying for death to take us from this heat. 

From dust we came and dust we become, 

Our graves marked with a bone-white gum.