The Pictures You Sent (i)

of the pictures you sent,
my heart is torn before
scattered spinifex in the desert

at night it shows an endless landscape
of silvery peace reaching horizon.
Moonlight envelopes it. The stars
fades out, leaves only the brightest
sparkling

during the day it reveals my house
standing lonely amongst nests of snakes,
you can see it beyond the end
of the road. Rows of burnt trees
along the edge, trailing off.

In that ancestral property, the ground
marooned by the blood of our fathers, a girl
curled in childhood space she never leaves:
beaten by the fears, raped by time

02/06/2010
© Era Fiyantiningrum