trout

Tuesday

Christmas Eve and not much change. We all sleep
in a tent to the side of the complex. The uncles

and some cousins are preparing the meat in the kitchen,
or peeling spuds. It's beginning to get a bit hot

but things are chilling out. So Turi crams me,
Hemo, Auntie Merle, Bella and Fraser into his

old Valiant without the warrant. There's no cops
around this way. He drives us to the deepest

waterhole he knows and we all jump in, though
I jump last. We're in the middle of one of our

uncles' land, and we come here later to go on
a day tramp. Here is the beginning of the bush

where there is gorse and the sound of insects.
I hide out here and dry myself in a patch of sun.