DAILY PROMPT
Stump
There’s this place in Australia called The Black Stump. It’s not within cooee of anywhere else and it’s not marked on a map, but we all know which side of it we are.
Because when you get out past it, it’s like this.
This is forever country
where I am speck of nothing in the middle of nowhere
with saltbush and lizards to hear me pass
and only crows in an endless, empty sky
to see my life reduced to a scribble of dust
between vanished horizons.
Are you out there, God?
helen meikle's scribblefest 
That’s an incredible atmospheric poem.
Is there something wrong with me, that I would like to step past that black stump, and know how it feels?
No. It’s…humbling? Awe-inspiring? Puts life in perspective, I think. Like the sea.
I’ve lived near the coast all my life, but I’m still awed by the power of the sea. I only like it when the weather is wild.
I love it when it’s wild, but calmer is good when I want to swim in it. But then my sea is warmer than yours.
It gets warmer in summer, but I stopped swimming years ago when I picked up a daft body image issue – I looked at my legs in the mirror.
Wow. I think we have a place like that between Vast Emptiness, Wyoming and Abject Void, Nevada. Beautiful poem.
You would, I’m sure. It’s movable and partly subjective. Glad you like the poem. It’s too short to be considered ‘worthy’, but when you’ve said it you’ve said it, really.
Very good! Yes, we do know which side we are on. 🙂
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it, and that it made sense!
New Zealand also has a black stump, but I don’t know if it’s a real place or not. Years ago, it was common to hear phrases like, “the best deal this side of the black stump”
Yours is probably the same as ours! In our case, it’s also known as ‘back o’ Bourke’.
Brilliant bit of verse Helen.
Loved reading it.
Cheers,
frank
Thanks, Frank! I love your verse too. An oasis of Australia in the midst of Americana!
It’s nice to get a genuine Australian slant in verse that otherwise stands up well in its own right. I’ve always enjoyed testing ‘local’ colour on other country audiences – just to be sure.
Cheers,
Frank