WHEN THE DESERT TURNS

They were driving a Kombi van through the Stuart Desert
famous for its Desert Pea, were flagged down
by a mirage of a man, whose smell was suddenly all too real.

From there the desert's claw twisted in ancient boredom
and flung the couple from their car into the noonday sun,
bound and gagged them, shot him quickly in the back of the head, dead.

When they found her, she was still tied at the wrists, cowering sunburnt,
thirsty for the coolness of dark and oasis. She walked as if the earth
repelled her, and perhaps that's what the desert had in mind.