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Poetry

Expedition to Blood Falls, Victoria Land

by MT O’Byrne

I used to catch fish in jam jars

and hide in hedges.

I slept in trees like a lemur

and dreamt of rockets landing

on another world.

I made a cell from clay and glue

and learnt of other places

through the slides my father

showed me – of people in Kowloon

and in the streets of Aden.

I collected black prince cicadas

for the hospitals,

and drew in blue ink

the constellations my freckles formed

upon my skinny arms.

In the bat cave, up from Lane Cove River,

we drew maps of Antarctica

and built sleds to haul our supplies

along the sands that served as snow

so that we could reach the glacier

And tasted the blood that pooled

in our lip-bitten mouths.