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