by JEANNIE HAUGHTON
cloudless endless sky
Cessna drone drills holes in the silence
predator-tense the man with a camera
perches cockpit awkward
scanning for horizon-framed perfection
he filter-tweaks expanses of landscape
zooms a bird’s eye view of a flea-sized roo
skimming the cracked sheath of a parched lake
wide-angles scrub tossed salad-like
on scabby age-ravaged ochre plains
strewn with claret-stain lakes
birdlife salt-and-peppering waterholes
endless variations on sameness
return journey engine whine glassy sun-glare
slack-jawed and curiously hungry
the cameraman pictures Croc Parma on his plate
back home – at home with strung-line poles and towers
highlighter in hand he traces his journey
pin-sticking the footsteps of founding fathers
the heartland’s ancient evolution
digitally filed Round Australia
next to Rarotonga and Raboul
the spider-spin butterfly wing-frenzy
outside his window unseen
in his haste for other spots on the map