12.The Town I loved So Well - Images of Gawler SA.

The junction of North and South Para Rivers in Gawler, South Australia

is one of the most sacred sites for the indigenous Kaurna people.

Two Rivers

the North and South Para rivers – Gawler SA

At the end of Gosford Street

the reserve is scorched white by summer

and the river bed a scalded depression

of hot stones.

And I am standing at the junction

of the North and South Rivers-

ghosts of the past are legion

apparitions hover at my back.

Despite the heat soaked day

there is deep water here

and a green coldness

that has me in its lure.

Two rivers that surge out of

deep gullies and encircle the old town

before they join here and plunge

ancient red-gum lined to the coast.

Behind me the bush fly silence

cracks open on the massive bluestone

edifice of railway bridge

to the sharp steel thunder of the train.

And my mind is a small coracle

that wants to embark on the hour

and sail deep into the alluvial plains

past the patchwork-quilt of farms to the sea.

Jeff Guess

©Jeff Guess 2017