Love Poem with Creek Names

1.

Today the world comes down to four hours
on the highway, nothing familiar after Pakenham
and the radio is too tinny, this car too noisy
so I count the creek names:
Deep Stone Creek, Mosquito Creek,
Blind Joe’s Creek
straggling waterways named by thirsty men
one part of the country not given over
to god or empire but story.

2.
Arrivals make me nervous, sniffing the air
for a change in your weather.
Do you still love me?

3.
We go walking. The dogs dash after rabbits,
magpies, shadows in the grass.
cows approach, as curious as children.
a crane lifts in the air, all languid legs,
old fox chased from its hidey hole
runs across the recent water,
red tail underlining the day.

4.
A daisy chain of creeks from here
to there, from me to you.
I rename them all the way home:
Missing You Creek,
Empty Bed Creek, Salt Tears Creek.