Snow Angels

Snow Angels


Australia’s red and sandy centre
Does not ever see falling snow.
Its winter vastness sees cold, dry frost;
Summer sees heat and, with luck, The Wet.
A place of Dreamtime and Kadaitcha
Is this land, not of angels.


Your country* knows winter snows
On craggy mountain, great lakes,
Wide plains and arctic tundra.
You told me about snow angels,
The ones you made as a child –
But I didn’t understand.


Then one summer, in my Outback land,
The river that mostly runs dry
Ran wild and wide in the Wet.
We went to see it drying, you and I,
And in deep, still flood-damp sand
You lay down, arms and legs outspread.


You moved them together in rhythm:
Arms up and down; legs open and closed.
I wondered, what is this you do?
Then you carefully stood and I saw
A lovely angel, winged and gowned.
So I lay down and made one too.
White snow angels fly now in red sand.



The Wet – northern Australian summer monsoon season, which extends to a small degree into the dry Centre.
Dreamtime – in Aboriginal mythology, the time land and life began.
Kadaitcha – a “witchdoctor” of Aboriginal Australia.

*Canada, from where my friend comes.

Written from the title prompt for

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