By Danny Fahey, Trinity College Teacher
He was an unusual…boy?
She was not sure… girl?
Just as likely…
What made her or him different though was the manner of remembering.
He or she had no memories inside.
Instead, the memories
to be recollected
grew amongst the leaves of a beautiful quandong tree.
She
or
He…
They
would pluck a startling red quandong each morning
when the bright yellow sun
was rising in the magnificent blue sky –
a canvas painted by song and dance
by feet in red earth and hands on gentle bark –
peel away the rind
lick the juices off finger tips
with tongue and lips smiled as memory, like water
rose into the heart's chittering beat.
They
devoured one memory only
every day.
Some days the memory
was of a large red roo
with eyes like brown smoke
and a tail that thumped the ground in joy
waking Earthsoul to another day.
Or a hill
rocked, grassed and barely treed
covered in red and blue parrots who squawked and squealed
stories at each other of the strange platypus creature
who swam in distant misty rivers.
Sometimes it was of the echidna’s tongue
soft sympathy to hard spike
reaching deep within
the roots of a fallen eucalypt trunk
searching for delectable ants for breakfast.
Or of hands
old and young
dipped in white ochre painting the rough wall
of a secret cave
to tell the tale of humanity.
It was like
living a life
afterwards
or backwards in time to before
the quandong
was a quandong
before it was a flower, cream and smelling as sweet as morning dew
or a bud that unfolded and drew
the native black bee inside.
Back to when
the tree was bare
and the sun was hidden
by clouds.
Back to when
rain fell upon the inland sea
like the words of a song
and her or his life
had just begun.
Each evening
as the sun grew heavy and decided to rest
taking off its bright yellow coat
to be replaced with silk pyjamas
of the deepest blue
They
would climb into the fork in the middle of the
quandong tree
nestle in
feel the two boughs of the tree
hug with love
and encourage him
or her
to dream of the memory that waited
to be discovered
in the fruit of the quandong
the very next day.