Leeching off Country

I want Adiantum, so
my boots embark
on Berry’s Head reserve—
where lianas deck the privet
and the lithe lantana swells.

Maidenhead sighted,
I sword the warm dark soil—¹
ritual bride theft—
finger and wrap
her netherparts.

Warding off Country,
I pluck some noxious herbs.
Luft the plunder home
with three sloshed leeches—
peg, hook, and crook—

enacting the blood tax.

1. In this poem I’m referencing the well-known Australian work by Dorothea Mackellar, ‘My Country’. Here are the relevant lines, from stanza three:
   
   ‘Green tangle of the brushes,
   Where lithe lianas coil,
   And orchids deck the tree-tops
   And ferns the warm dark soil.’ ↩︎