Van Diemen’s Land
Shorn sheep swim
in tawny grass.
Scorched trees flame green.
A hard road
through the rocks
to Port Arthur.
Windows barred
and roof open
the Penitentiary
rears up,
a broken mill
behind hoardings.
A ferry
shows tourists
the Isle of the Dead.
Dennis Tomlinson lives in London and writes poetry. He has had poems published in Lunar Poetry, the Poetry ID anthologies and various small magazines, translations in Modern Poetry in Translation and The Wolf.