Competition

Highly Commended

Hidden Gully
by Zondrae King
East Corrimal, NSW

Some days I go out walking with no plan inside my head.
I just let whimsy take me and I wander where I'm lead.
And so it came to be one day I found a magic place.
I know I wasn't dreaming and a smile spread cross my face.

At first there came a fairy wren with grass held in its beak.
It flew into some nearby trees. It's then I heard the creek.
The trees were old and twisted and half covered up by moss.
The ropes of climbing vines made curtains everywhere they’d cross.

I halted, stopped dead in my tracks and heard a little crunch
and rustle in the undergrowth of lizards chasing lunch.
Then there upon a sturdy branch a Cormorant, on high
sat holding up its out stretched wings to let its washing dry.

I sat and rested on a tree and did not make a sound
then spied a whiskered nose come from a doorway in the ground.
A sleek and timid water rat slid silent from the bank
then left a line of bubbles as into the creek he sank.

In shallows, near the edges of the creek, the reeds grew high
while out in deeper water schools of fingerlings swam by.
A quarrelling of Lorikeets flew circles round a tree
and finding nectar in the blossoms, landed close to me.

The Sun parading cross the sky appeared to smile down
A Bull Bull in the bushes shyly bowed her pointed crown
A flash of red, her mate showed me the patch under his tail.
I gave a silent 'thank you' that I'd stopped beside the trail.

My daydreams blended readily with shadows of a tree.
God's creatures moving here and there had shared some time with me.
My spirits were uplifted by this place I found superb.
The gully, hidden by the houses, right in my suburb.