across this Eora   river valley

morning sun seeps be   tween a syntax

of glass and concrete   warming the yard

and the shrivelling leaves   of a cucumber plant

depositing yellow flowers   into memory’s mulch

(rubbing the male’s anther   into the female’s stigma

pollinating by hand for lack   of bees) while out in the street

a piece of black tar sits like   a stratigraphic fragment

some museum might one day   label Bitumen of The Exponential Layer

a time in which the colony failed   to read the most simple things

i.e. the way ants pick at an ibis   squashed like an ice cream

in the gutter   carrying the tin   iest offcuts along the path

and into a yard   where two   workers dump an earth-

worm of carpet into a green   and gold skip bin
      and to think of this street     as a collage

of colours   localised by weath     er patterns

mediated by ocean temperatures     changing

from an increase of carbon in the     atmosphere

blues and yellows peeling from     California bungalows

separated by collapsing fences     held together by orange

and lemon trees   an ornate     Victorian steel gate

rusted by southerlies and over     grown with rosemary

or a Triassic sandstone façade     crumbling above

post-war Doric Pillars that      suggest a mini-Parthenon

ship-wrecked in the Pacific     and to which an old lady clings

tending roses until her back     gives and her son

now living on the outskirts     of the metropolis

moves her into a home     while her house is cleaned out

by two workers   to be     inspected by a pair

of newly wed yopros     blow-ins from the suburbs
      this street is a bloody gem

the husband exclaims at the       inspection

preceding an invitation to speak       by popping his sunnies

on the back of his neck and talking       about his new start-up

that will deliver food using lab        grown possums trained by robots

made from materials mined in       the Congo and Cambodia

and that his business has       this sustainable edge

each bot having been       manufactured in Hamburg

using power generated       by wind turbines scattered across the North Sea

really   it’s a genius idea       he laughs and licks his lips

for delivering burgers       and chips to the cotton-mouths of tradies

who pull so many billies       they mistake the Rabbitohs for the Raiders

on the Friday Night Footy       and the only real expense

he means   once they’re       properly established

will be the feed   
      and some months later         having secured

a $2.8 million mortgage         the couple order Vietnamese

from the cute place rated         5-stars on Uber Eats

before stripping down         to their anther and stigma

pollinating one another         on a new beige leather couch

from Ikea   after which         they both agree

that tomorrow they’ll chop         down the citrus

and plant a nice arrangement         of natives