out beyond the concrete drainage pipes
cattle shunt down the ramped platform
into holding pens near the roadsign

Darwin 6457 km   Cars pass
the improbable beauty of the post industrial
landscape without properly seeing them

as they wait bated by dust in the air

Gates open and they nose uncertainly
into the tunnel crowded by more cattle
behind them moving towards the abattoir

This is it then   They have left the meaningless
mirror glass of water in the galvanised
iron tanks and the swift blue of the sky