Week Three Reflective Piece- Finding Peace by UQ Lakes

While I was sitting outside next to the lake I was reminded of my childhood home, where there is a dam dotted with ducks and the odd paper-bark tree. I was relaxed by thinking back to the days I would spend catching fish in the dam and walking on tip toes-- trying not to startle the eels and turtles soaking up the sun in the shallows. I remember thinking about how if there was no paper I would always be able to use the soft bark from the paper-bark trees to write down my thoughts...

They are made of paper

And have tiny green fingers

Which are always relaxed.

They talk to each other; lean on each other.

The V of their many necks,

And long white arms

Stretch upwards

Like a yawn.

They are never tired, but always sleepy

They are never lonely, but always waving.

Insects burrow into their sides,

Leaving trails of stories.

Generations of moths sleep under

Their folds of white skin.

Lizards scuttle up their sides with tickling claws and

Birds laugh on their arms and sometimes

Make nests out of their hair.

But me, I sit beneath them

My legs getting imprinted with a mirage of sticks and leaves

And as I look at the paperbark-tree

I know I am home.

Image:

http://eddcross.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/some-wildlife-at-university-of.html