Cirrus@Austlit

This work is a sequence of poems, some titled, some not, which reads in parts like an extended poem. The first, untitled poem in 5 numbered parts seems to be spoken in the voice of the poet, referring to experiences working in hospitals and living in an unnamed Australian city. The remainder of the sequence, an untitled poem in 7 unnumbered untitled parts that include within them 4 titled poems, is spoken by a group of Aboriginal Australians travelling through dry country in search of water. The place name Tickalara and other Aboriginal words used suggest Queensland, but also South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. One poem within this longer poem, titled 'Snake's Song/Lizard's Song/Water Lily's Song/Other Animals' Song/Nomadic Tribe's Song', consists almost entirely of words in an unnamed Aboriginal language or languages, including 'Apa', 'Wirrawa' and 'Urramaruna', which the poet admits (in his own voice, in parentheses) to finding at random in a 'cheap dictionary'.