Gifts - Oodgeroo of the Noonucall (Kath Walker)

[highlyeccentric]

Gifts

‘I will bring you love’, said the young lover,
‘A glad light to dance in your dark eye.
Pendants I will bring of the white bone,
And gay parrot feathers to deck your hair.’

But she only shook her head.

‘I will put a child in your arms,’ he said,
‘Will be a great headman, great rain-maker.
I will make remembered songs about you
That all the tribes in all the wandering camps
Will sing forever.’

But she was not impressed.

‘I will bring you the still moonlight on the lagoon,
And steal for you the singing of all the birds;
I will bring the stars of heaven to you,
And put the bright rainbow into your hand.’

‘No’, she said, ‘bring me tree-grubs.'

---

I acquired The Oxford Book of Australian Women's Verse (ed. Susan Lever, 1995) from the library yesterday. \o/

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

Heh!