The Citrus Tree
/Ropehair began to dream of a garden. At night, when the stars were brilliant, I could feel her happiness as she imagined food growing from the red desert earth.
Read MoreRopehair began to dream of a garden. At night, when the stars were brilliant, I could feel her happiness as she imagined food growing from the red desert earth.
Read MoreIt's an intrusive presence in the desert, that hot star. Things are different in Europe, where the Sun gives people a chance to miss it during winter.
Read MoreFor a moment I thought, ‘My heart’s gonna stop.’ It was a single shark, a lone swimmer.
Read More'I’ve never been afraid of sharks. They are among the most elegant swimmers in the ocean.
There are some exceptions. The Great White has got a face that only a mother could love.'
I was allowed to stand above the patient's head to see his heart and lungs working while the doctors and nurses worked on him. I stood as still as I could, afraid I might fall in.
Read MoreMy friend sounded like some kind of bitter extremist. Even if I knew she was right, she was spoiling our fun.
Read MoreWe’d pull up in the middle of the road to talk to other people driving their cars around, in case something happened.
Read MoreI don't believe the plastic bags under the kitchen bench have consciousness. But I could believe it of the exquisite old wooden table on which I type.
Read MoreMy Aboriginal grandfather didn’t want to be buried in a graveyard with a headstone after he died. “Put me up in a tree,” he said, “Like the old people did.”
“They put dead bodies up in a tree?” I was incredulous.
Broome was the first place I saw hot pink frangipanis – their perfume swelling up in the waves of midday heat
Read MoreThere are those who use the old names in the pursuit of a misguided principle — that English speakers have a right to hegemony, to be the unquestioned namers of everything on the Australian islands.
Read More"I felt something on the top of my head.” Claudia said, “A claw scratching on my skull! I was terrified!"
Read More“The Rock protects itself,” said our Anangu friend. According to him, anyone who did ignorant, disrespectful things to Uluru or Kata Tjuta would suffer mental illness in later years.
Read MoreFar below them the three young men they’d come to rescue were stuck inside an enormous chasm.
Read MoreLooking out over the orange and pink sands, patterned by olive and citron greens of recent rains, I thought of our friend who died on that road. He flies with eagles.
Read MoreI watched her breathing for three or four hours, checking her pulse, alert to any grimace or gasp.
Read More'Couldn’t immigration make some allowance?’ asked my wife. ‘They really don’t care,’ said the officer, looking Claudia in the eye.
Read More"The wild carrot has a leaf which is delicate and curved. We call it Aphrodite’s eyebrow. You have to be very careful though, because the other plant that looks like these is hemlock.”
Read More‘This is a very serious incident —' said Claudia.
‘There was no incident,’ interrupted the doctor.
We came on late notice, told that Claudia’s mother was dying. She nearly died a few times during her hospital admission. The doctor was quietly astonished when we agreed to take her home to care for her there.
Read MoreSlot Canyon photograph in banner by Sebastian Boguszewicz
Creative Writing by Dr. Janelle Trees
I'm a doctor of Aboriginal descent living and travelling with my photographer wife, Claudia. I see myself as a bridge between 'races' and cultures, gay and straight, the child and the crone, arts and sciences. I am inspired by Nature, including humans in all our splendid individuality.
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