Undiscovered

We’re explorers
all of us
one way or another.

A history here
on this huge isle
of human travel

and before,
from depths of dreams
a serpent

moving, marking, guarding
sacred sites
still seen on rocks and sands.

We’re heirs to precious
legacy or curse –
the urgent need

to know what lies
behind the mountain
where the creek might flow.

Cook, Bligh and Darwin
navigated seas,
wild winds and wilder fears

to find what might lie further,
where maps unfurled a world
of empty space.

And we’ve kept coming,
some with nought to lose
on leaky boats or seeking gold,

others who can’t refuse
that step right off the cliff
into a world that’s new

to travel more,
drawn into war
or beckoned by the call

of Asia, Africa, Indian,
Pacific seas
to what lies past

red deserts,
winding rivers
worn-down hills of home.

What happens, then,
when age, pandemic,
climate hem us in?

Perhaps we’ll sit alone and still.
Adventure will unwind.
It’s time to pay attention

to our undiscovered mind.

September 2020