Boxes of houses littering the land
And toys of cars dwindling to insect size
Change into coloured ribbons as we rise
As at the touch of a magician's hand.
Match sticks of trees dissolve at Height's command.
Fleece cobwebs of clouds clear to glass-like skies,
The sea becomes Greuse-painted silk that lies
As motionless as corrugated sand.
Now earth is flat patterned with maps of farms
Ethereal, crossed threads of roads and snakes
Of rivers coiled bronze-black round dreamsoft clay.
The trance-calm silence the thrilled spirit charms
As nothing stirs save where some great wave breaks
And like white paper lightly blows away.
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 1952;
and again in the same newspaper on 7 February 1953.
