The Eucalyptus Spring

Light fell through shade
Of Eucalyptus. A cool spring
Flowed from a bamboo stem.
Eucalyptus clacked and
Clattered. The bumpy road
Was straight and marrowed.
Bones bleached white,
Came to litter
Traveling east,
We turned a corner,
Fell down a slope,
A treeless plain.

We pulled into a dusty lot next to a white cafe. The lot was crowded with chickens. A circular globe, "Taxica" graced the pump. An attendent shooshed a goose, and asked,

"How much mam?"

"Thriller up,"

"No thrills here, your muffler's loose.
Wait inside
Have a lime
Its happy hour
Your just in time."

"In tomb for wit?"

"To watch the fright."

The bar smelled dank and musty. Smoked sausages hung from rusty hooks. A fat old man slouched at a table facing a young boy. As the old man dozed, the youth fiddled with some green beans. The younger man wore shiny red shorts that read "EVERLASTING." The older man's shorts read "EVERLASTING" too, but his were blue.

"Wots the smill?" Gail trilled.

"Don't look at me, that's sausage aging."

"Wits the gum?"

"Wait and see."

"Who err they?"

The bartender inhaled and sang with his arms outstretched:

"Two contenders,
Odds are even,
Make a play
Come on girl,
Don't take all day."

Gail threw in a few coins. Outside an old horse side stepped and jerked its neck. A bell 'round its neck jingled. The boy stopped shucking. The old man slouched. The one horse grazed on hay.

On the road
A long time after
Blurs of heat
And little shade.
All the fields were
Burnt and blackened,
Green glass balls
On telephone poles
Held silver lines
Which carried voices
Trysts and whispers
Through its lace.
I'm not sorry
For this warning
A simple fact
I say though lest
I will forget
Before the morning:
The sun fast fades
In the west.

"Ho?" Leo inquired.

"Tell?" queried Gail.

"If that's the star
Of the evening
Venus near the setting sun,
The hotel must be
On the mesa
Round the corner
Up the run."

"Ho?"

"Tell?"

In the failing light atop the mesa a group of girls stood around a swimming pool which glowed sky blue. The sun was gone. The jagged lines of the distant hills intersected their aerobics in silhouette.