Wild.
Fierce. Burning. Hostile. Distant. Ancient.
Naked. Ochre. Green. Sea blue.
Virgin. Violent.
My land is remote, sheltered from prying gaze, from taint and hatred.
I wander it dazed, drunk on its beauty, mad with its solitude.
I tame the secret of these proud latitudes.
11
Weren’t you thirsty? Hey what, Pissant Johnny?
Lookit the nitwit! Woke you up, right?
Heh, we sure are. Worse than you, jackanapes.
You’re all pigs, the lot of you! Worse, even!
What else’d you call a kid who sleeps in the street and never bathes?
Who lives in piss and shit and gets tossed around all day long? An animal, Johnny! A godforsaken animal who’ll keel over one of these days without ever coming to grips wi’ his life.
58
Welcome to London!
59
They’ve got no choice!
216
217
the vast...
yonder.
The bush. a strange name for...
One syllable bristling with infinite meaning.
374
Scrub. Garden. Grove. Brush. Forest.
Take your pick.
Four letters naming lands still left to wander.
Extending past the limits of our sight.
375
He’d run a long way.
Fled.
Or so he thought.
376
he be caught? His broad black back’s a target for the whites.
How long now? Two days? When would...
He braved the bush and all its many pests.
Amidst the flies he tries to steal some sleep.
That no one’s come a-hunting yet suggests...
His enemies are those that crawl and creep.
O brave new world, that has such monsters in’t!
377
Wolf-headed dogs, and creatures of the night...
Monsters of sea...
and land alike...
They fill the hearts... of wise and mad men both with fright.
All these perilous combats has he won...
His mighty strength has bested all but one.
For the most dangerous creature of all is... 378
UNCORRECTED PROOF
MAN!
we-ary!
mi mi ga mim bowanara mi ga!
I’m sick of people being on my back!