TREAD LIGHTLY

Tineke Van der Eecken – 2021

My feet remember the tricks of trekking;
sand-sucked soles, toes hold and release

forms in rivulets and rivers, arms reaching for
ocean; at Roebuck Bay a dinosaur’s step on reef

no longer submerged; on salt lake crust
the weight of a body on foot halfway

down, the red pindan sand imprints
repeat generations of Yawuru feet.

My child toes press the Flemish clay
grandmother’s field laboured by hand.

Part of the Tributaries Exhibition