A boyish grin in your branches
you climb into the sky
with fingertips on tree-bark
to its shoulders, through its eyes
on red-gum scribbles
wooden heights

Barefoot, scamper upward
earth in your lungs
breathe deeply, and feel
the roots in your chest
as web-woven shadows
teeter along

Oh build your castle there
and champion truth
with that sun-blonde hair
in the sky of sea, adrift in the light
on cotton-white tides

As fifty-two birds fly
like cards, dealt ever upward
on skyscape velveteen
in their paper-skins, like you
take flight, take flight
with your hearts and your diamonds,

red as the land

below