East of the house,
where radiance
seeps upward
from beyond the hills,
and where long islands
loom across the bay -
humpbacks
on dreaming trails,
strayed from some
primeval pod,
morphing
into spines of rock,
giving birth to trees
and to Kanomi,
island of the lost -
there to the east
where spear grass
gleams knee-deep,
sunbeams solidify,
a kangaroo stands
statue-still, haloed
in a fuzzy nimbus
blurring fur with photons
as time squanders light
on fields untilled.
Gazing towards Buddha
dozing in the umbra
of a gum, the doe
resembles apparition,
ancient totem-visitant
surprised by daybreak,
ambushed by a noose
flung from the rising sun.