Painting the past

by Leni Shilton

White smoke in the trees lifts slowly,
it weaves through the empty frames.
They hang from the branches
like mirrors.

She hung them there
looking for herself,
her mother –
for all the mothers.
For the women who were once here
she listens in the stillness for their voices.

The smoke winds sleep-like
from her campfire,
drifting this side to that.

She puts the billy to boil
and the crack of flames
is the only sound
in the wide yawn of quiet.

A honeyeater alights on a frame
its call startled and loud,
the whole forest alert
watching for the smoke.

The frames rock in the breeze.
Unblinking eyes
capturing the forest, the birds
the distance.

She paints late into the day
forgetting herself
until the sun drops,
the cold comes in.

As the light lowers,
she walks about
reaches into trees
collecting frames.
They clatter into her bag,
into darkness
like eyes closing.

She empties the billy onto dry leaves,
breathes in eucalyptus.

She packs away her paintings
her paints,
the perfect blend of green, of grey.
She tips water on the campfire
steps back from the blast of steam.

The last of the coals scattered,
she heaves bags on her shoulder
trudges up the creek bed,
feet slipping in the dry sand.

Behind her,
the forest is itself again
No frames to look through,
no fire or smoke
just itself for a thousand miles,
stretching and shaking in the breeze.

Leni Shilton is a poet and verse novelist. Her book Walking with camels won the 2020 NT Chief Ministers Book Award. Leni’s poetry work appears in journals and anthologies, and she judged the 2020 Stella Prize. After many years in Mparntwe | Alice Springs, she now lives on Dja Dja Wurrung country.

Image credit Pam French 
Fowlers Gap/Broken Hill area, acknowledging the Wilyakali/Wijaali peoples

Poem from exhibition: Mother Mother with my sister, visual artist Pam French
Newstead Arts Hub, Newstead, Victoria, Dja Dja Wurrung Country, 5-27 October 2024