Ceremony

. . .

Mind Stirring within the song
of rhythmic cicadas
Knees weak under the weight
of the looming summer sun
Bushfires in my mind
Under the melting days lull
I saw the eyes of an elder
Holding the moon and the stars
and the colours of the ancestral snake
pluming through the smoke of gum leaves
and the souls of every leaf
and tree and branch before me
engraved upon the walls of my mind
the shadows of their waking souls
clearing my sight
in ceremonial fire