This Much I Know To Be True

There was an urgency and the river rushes by.

Clear the bridge, clear the path, clear the pipes; make way, make way. So instead he sat on the balcony and drank too much whisky and listened to idiot conversation he couldn't believe people even opened their mouths for. Let me explain something. He didn't know whether he was running to a human or cosmic schedule; the time scales refusing to match. Opposite a picturesque dairy farm, yet to be overtaken by ribboned highways and in hundreds of years time, a space port. We welcomed you at night time. His body rebelled at the mistreatment. He was not alone. 

They were welcomed into a fold and called out from a very great distance. Their aching hearts were never stilled. Still fool's paradise on that picturesque piece of coast; as if nothing was happening and no harm would come. 

We were surrendering on battlefields, in ignominy and harness. In mud. For it was all as clear as mud right now. 

No need to escape, my beloved. 

The government was careening into its own jaws, trapped by its own shibboleths, feeding a maw which could never be satisfied, women's voices, women's representation, women's grievances, mass hysteria, hoisted on their own petard. Try being a falsely accused bloke fighting the system, as so many had, and see how far you got. While the same hysteria enveloped the government and the newspapers and the air in between; as if any semblance of good government had long since fled. 

We walked in line with you. We tried to help you. 

He could not crush these final impulses; he could not destroy his own destiny; he could not walk outside the path and remain there; for all was quiet in these reaches and all made sense now; and he would walk that path; and rally to the cause; and be the man he was meant to be; all these signals of regret, a time and a place for everything, yes, a signal regret, a warm embrace, a time and place, an oceanic calm, a place, a place, and now they rose. 

The whales were on the move. They would be here soon. The granddaddy of them all was still alive. He could feel them moving even as they sang. 

And there in those reaches. On the path. 

A drowned world. It had stopped raining at last, with floods reported up and down the coast. 

And another soldier. Another decency. Another path to walk. 

He could hold them dear and walk with them. 

And it all came true, that harping carping thought: What if it's all true? What if there really are spirits of place and angels and demons and gods of different ilk and spread; what if they really were there; just not what human history had believed them to be. 

Saints and sinners. 

There would be another time and place. But now was something; when the infinite took hold. 

And he reached up to smile. And they gave him a tiny wink. 

And he went back to the forest. Back to church. He walked the path. Only you can heal yourself, nobody else can, nobody else should. 

And there it was; a signal regret. And there it was, a great embrace. 

He wasn't there to please them; or follow their human schedules; or even, really, to care. 

Bridges get walked on. Simple as that. 

 HEADLINES:

It's 'abundantly clear' that 'we're not all in this together'22/03/2021|4min

Sky News host Rita Panahi says the “great divide” between the private and public sectors has become all the more apparent “in the age of COVID”. “It's been a year now that we've been bombarded with the phrase: ‘We are all in this together’,” Ms Panahi said. “That's what we were told at the start of this COVID crisis and just about every day since. “But it's always been a load of bollocks; those with skin in the game, the small business owners, the investors, the self-funded retirees, those working in tourism, hospitality, aviation and a number of other industries have seen their livelihoods destroyed while public servants making the decision to lockdown have remained on full salaries with no fear of losing their jobs.

Australia weather live updates: Ten million people under weather warning as two major systems collide

A landslide has closed one of the major roads out of Sydney today – and there are reports the damage is so bad it will be blocked off "for the foreseeable future".

A landslide has closed one of the major roads out of Sydney today, leaving motorists stranded – and there are reports the damage is so bad it may be blocked off indefinitely.

Bells Line of Road, which links Richmond in western Sydney with the town of Bell in the Blue Mountains, is now closed in both directions and according to the Bowen Mountain community group, it will remain so “for the foreseeable future”.

“Engineers have determined that the latest landslide (just after lunch) has damaged the road to such an extent that there is a high risk of the whole mountainside and roadway collapsing into the gorge below,” the group wrote. “The excessive rain has eroded the structural integrity underneath the road, causing parts of the road to fall into the valley. Many motorists are stuck with no way of getting home.”

It comes as thousands more western Sydney residents prepare to evacuate as the Hawkesbury River continues to rise tonight, while on the mid-north coast residents of the battered town of Kempsey are spending their second night away from home as the Macleay River threatens to surge again tomorrow.

The Bureau of Meteorology says an astonishing 10 million Australians in every mainland state and territory except Western Australia are currently under some form of severe weather warning as two major systems collide.

Embroiled in a political crisis, Scott Morrison is looking tricky, unable to be straight with the public

The prime minister doesn’t like answering questions. But it’s an obligation that comes with the office