TENTH VIEW OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
Araucania, Chile, 1800 AD
This is no job for the young, Melipal;
only old women like me will go on
using one dream to explain another
in this language twisted like dry tree roots.
Your five lights have watched us fight the Incas
and live and trade with the Spanish
and you know I’ve fought the evil spirits
as well as any kulku of the Mapuche.
But we both see the invasion coming
and the end of all the old ways;
then even the dreams won’t make sense.
S.C. Flynn was born in a small town in Australia of Irish origin and now lives in Dublin. His poetry has been published in more than a hundred magazines in more than ten countries. His forthcoming collections are “The Colour of Extinction” (Renard Press, October 2024) and “An Ocean Called Hope” (Downingfield Press, May 2025).