for David Gilbey

fire-engine flash of fox pelt
and a plume of tail
fluffy…like some oil-well ablaze on a Gulf War postcard
and from the body
it was fleeing at a 2 o'clock incline

almost innocent in the ebb of dawn
above the vineyards at Booranga
sauntering erratically
as a red beacon
across the screen of a life-support monitor

up and down and away
this alien enigma upon Wiradjuri skin