Brendan Ryan

canola’s chemical yellow rises above the fence line Black Poles laze around a dam, ibis and egrets gliding overhead wattle, casuarina, eucalypt, cypress, radiata   where the bitumen gives way to gravel taking you deeper into shadows, ditches tinder undergrowth of a bush block ... (read more)

Basalt plains, sheep and beef country drying off. The light, intense between showers. I drive as if my head has been opened up through paddocks blistered from lava flows between bare hills. The roads dependable as elderly bachelors take me through towns abandoned after the storekeeper dies. ... (read more)

While my brother milksI return to mist drifting up the fence posts.The night’s sheet slowly evaporatinggiving in to day – already a process of action. Cows backing off the platformmake their way up the track –the stumps of their tails flicking at fliesthey regard me with surprise. Three heifers bolt past the day’s paddocktheir routine has been damagedeventually they will find their way b ... (read more)