Ascending Mt Cannibal in rain-heavy air
– a few moments between downpours
                                allowed for the summit.
North, Mt Towt,
and below this outlier
an aqueduct traces through foothills
to Cornucopia.
                                     South,
under Mt Worth’s mohawk
the valley opens up to power lines,
stud farms, the light industrial corridor.

Twigs snap underfoot
                                              bolting a wallaby
from a clearing of mossy rock,
                                                              then silence,
the faint register of leaves;
pink heath and yellow wattle
aglow in the ultramarine.