Morning dew as fresh as glasses of champagne
and further back, the deep dark green
of the tall pine trees
as the train snakes it way through cuttings
around granite outcrops
a rabbit jumps and magpies chortle
there’s a fox!

First light plus ten
almost too early for people
in the middle distance, a Presbyterian steeple
horses with necks bowed ignore waddling ducks
an abandoned bulldozer
crouches next to quarry trucks
we race a ute carrying chooks and dogs
through blackberry briars, past croaking frogs
bright sunshine blasts the green hills
cows with bells chew daffodils.