Orbit

Orbit

Sliding next to my soul-son,
busy marrying the seatbelt connections,
I leaned over and completed the circuit for him.
Breathing the heavenly scent of his sweaty curls
I dropped a loving kiss upon his small, golden head.

Our boxer dog Tess, reclined on the cracked vinyl seat
whose crevices resembled her own worried, weathered, wrinkles.
She was as poised as Gloria Swanson
at a tea party, pinkie perched
on the rim of her porcelain cup.

Accusatory eyes blinking, she read my thoughts,
our language complicit, pink rubber tongue lolling.
This long awaited outing
our arrangement, a tacit agreement
no need for spoken words.

We three on wheels meander beneath the eucalypts
eventually turning nonchalantly towards a sparser landscape.
Stilted conversation is all we’ve got,
lurching along a gravelled road bumping over rocks
just like the Flintstones.

I turned up the static radio,
bouncing in time to ‘Men at Work’ and the Great Australian Anthem.
Twilight zone the perfect time to go walking;
‘hiking’ as we called it in New Zealand.
The retro clocks urged adventures.

We braked, scanned, stopped, colluded,
tumbled out feather-light, embarked on the wilderness,
the undergrowth, ever mindful of snakes.
Too early for cicadas which deafened me
my modified hearing was acute, so I was grateful.

We stepped daintily along the foot-worn paths avoiding holes.
The mirrored lake with quacking, flapping ducks was eerie
without the benefit of quickening light.
Might not morning might have been a better choice?
I battened down this thought.

Bird symphonies; choruses, crescendos,
strings, clashing cymbals, oboes, tinkling triangles, piccolos whispering.
Crunchy leaves beneath feet and paws
panting, the odd whistle, the occasional hoot.
Stillness when we approached.

Deafening silence mirrored the type that descends
at the end of day
when the plastic snails inside my ears were removed.
THAT silence associates with submersion in deep, dark water
or when you sink in the bath.

We hastened past fungi, dragonflies, spiders, cobwebs,
wombat droppings, footprints;
signs and symbols of invisible previous lives and unseen forces
smiling or grimacing behind the ghostly ivory trunks.
They waved their spindly arms at us.

Thumping, ground-shaking kangaroos disappear behind trees.
No wonder they fled in horror.
Shameful human signs of violation, we are a part of.
The ugly, ghastly, debris; coke cans, barbeques for carnivores.
Did they roast some roo?

The magical circle ended where it began.
We climbed back wearily into our car and the 21st century.
Bush and wildlife images already fading.
Bush chatter began again. We were all relieved to be sitting.
Jazz was panting.

I smiled at my satiated companions;
‘Are you okay - tired?’ I asked, it had been a long walk.
‘No’ Codey answered, stoic ‘I love that walk, its fun’
Tess grinned, lapping the edges of the lake.
Her head was full of duck images and sounds.

Codey, my heart, my heaven, my haven.
We exchanged a mother/son smile;
He returned to his happy thoughts through the window.
Love is peace, perfection, paragon.
It heals everything, I thought.

Tess resumed her languid, languorous pose in the back seat;
she grinned wickedly at me,
wriggling her stunted boxer tail whenever I spoke.
Happy and contented; all was forgiven.
Walks imbued her with dizzy euphoria.

Bumping home along the cratered Martian road,
we approached a solitary, separated sheep.
It ran crazily, raggedly, alongside a jagged barbed-wire fence
between the road and a paddock.
It bleated hysterically to the flock on the inside.

Its mournful bleating was a haunting melancholy cry.
The others responded in a Medea chorus of sheep voices
urgently repeating the same sound.
They were appealing, pleading for me to go to its aid.
Images of ‘Babe’ taunted me.

Some sheep pretended to graze nonchalantly.
Others raised their heads, transparently worried, concerned.
They called out to their friend –
some walked about restlessly between stolen, guilty nibbles.
Something had to be done.

I slowed down and stopped, though I hesitated.
Tess looked at me with puzzled eyes - her face a query.
’Why are we stopping?’ she psyched,
unheeding of her fellow mortal in distress.
She only sent me her messages.

‘I can’t leave it’ I said by way of explanation,
pulling on the handbrake and killing the ignition.
‘You stay here’ I said to them both.
‘I’ll just quickly open the gate and let it in with the rest of them.
I won’t be long’.

I stepped out onto the darkening road,
without plan or foresight towards the panicky sheep
which raced up and down ever faster as it saw me approach.
Opened the heavy wire gate, budged unwillingly, leant awkwardly.
Considered my plight.

Herding it towards the gate without assistance was futile.
I beckoned for Codey to block the flock
he joined me willingly, eager to join in with the game.
We herded it like stealthy sheep-dogs, carefully.
We ushered it along the ghastly wire .

The sheep poor thing, exhausted
heaved, panted from the relentless cantering
in its heavy burdensome coat.
Finally hurtled through the gate and blindly joined the waiting mob.
A white woolly mass of anonymity.

Codey and I sighed,
relieved, did a high five, shut the recalcitrant gate.
Headed back to the car glowing with self-satisfaction.
We’d achieved our deed and rescued the sheep.
All was well.

‘No neighbours for miles’ we observed.
‘Poor thing might have died of shock,
got hit by a car, shred to bits on barbed wire’. We patted ourselves on the back.
‘Thank you’ I said, ‘Couldn’t have done it without you’.
We inwardly beamed.

Codey waited at the car,
he had good habits even in a rush.
Tess grinned through the smudged window;
Frantically jealous watching us herd the sheep.
‘You’re safe’ said she.

My smile was smug.
Tightly-shut charade windows; murky smudges, dog slobbered, fogged up.
I’d forgotten to open windows. I tried my door, it was jammed.
My hand on the door handle, stuck.
It was locked.

Icy fear filled me.
The keys were in the ignition.
Guess what? I said with feigned indifference.
All inward feelings of self-congratulation extinguished.
He nodded sagely and returned my thinly – veiled gaze of pretence
He had orbit eyes.