When clear October suns unfold
mallee tips of red and gold
children on their way to school
discover tadpoles in a pool,
iceplants sheathed in beaded glass
spider orchids and shivery grass,
webs with globes of dew alight
budgerigars on their first flight,
tottery lambs and a stilty foal
a papers slough that a snake shed whole,
and a bronzewing's nest of twigs so few
that both the sky and the eggs show through.
