by Earl Livings

Three kilometres of walking
under trees galumphing
with the wind, listening
to chitter, screech, croak
of noisy miners, lorikeets,
magpies seeking sanctuary
or revelling in the challenge
of branch and air constantly
twisting, walking towards
a memory of long white wings
gliding over gleaming water
seen years before, watching
for so long nothing stood out
but singing light…

Men in hard hats and Hi-Vis
uniforms carrying clipboards
and pointing out dump sites.
Construction vehicles humming.
Cyclone fencing around pools
half drained, clogged with rushes,
sedges, smothered by red algae.
Walkways blocked off.
Display boards promising
a link with a rebuilt creek,
1.8 million plants, ten thousand trees,
ten kilometres of paths once
the freeway upgrade ends. No dates.
A dusky moorhen scratches at clay.

• Valda Wetlands, late winter, 2024