Song out of the Salt Lines of Chowilla

Bookmark’s Lament

“Him fella polygonum: go too much,
but’em me too little - Bookmark Tommy;
blackfella creek belong ‘em boxes-trees;
black boxes an’ reed, redgum creek,
sheep tucker ‘im out nardoo: no more
in all ‘em islands, ‘em islands of Chowilla.


“white lines da creek, salt-ochre lines
paint ‘im live-one root of redgum tree
goin’ dead one campfire wood: long to go
bone, salt knee: stick out, roots bleach:
no good salt-wood, stink-burn like bone
in all ‘em islands ‘em islands of Chowilla.


“dat one football-saltbush - black roly-poly
windblows bare ground, him gather-gather
other-one tumbleweeds, over-over - for none!
Empty windbreak now: forever-ever country,
turn ‘im spirit-swim over whiteman island border
to all ‘em islands, ’em islands of Chowilla.


“few, longtime few; - few now of Rufus river
few old signtree: one here, one beside creek
in bare ground, hard claypan, open ground;
bigwater longtime paints ‘im salt watermark
limin’ creekbanks ov battleground - crusted bare
on ‘em cumbungi reed, ‘em islands of Chowilla.


“Dat one Lake Victoria - Bonney: old time myalls
Mookamka -em of olden time go with us dere
dey sit deadly chin’in’knee, bone elbow’im fly,
lik ‘im no-eye stare da sand, empty head no’im
‘walkin’ burial grounds, longtime burial country
trackin’ lake lunette, ‘em graves of Mookamka.


“Skeleton weed an spurry, tumbling spinifex
of olden time. Bookmark sit ov all pages torn
b’tween Mookamka grave an’ un-boxed bone
where old Rufus River spearman took ‘em stand;
to die like weeds, like weeds dey tumbled down,
far down dem banks, ‘em salt island of Chowilla.


“Bjukmarrk Runthdel ‘im last ov old-ones sing;
whiteman callim’sad fella Bookmark Tommy
ov bible song to Bunjil in old Mookamka bone
on salt-painted knee: ‘im bent in all em weed,
to flood ‘em back in dem Murray river island,
water-run ‘em jeremiah islands of Chowilla...

- seeing-water waitin’ islands of Chowilla.”


2002 © Wayne David Knoll

Written after visiting the Meeting of the Waters at Wentworth, NSW, canoeing across three State borders and travelling north of the Murray to Renmark, South Australia in 2000. The internationally environmentally highlighted Bookmark section of the Murray River, in the South Australian Borderlands is named after Bjukmarrk Runnthdel.