Many years ago I was intrigued by the appearance on Perth roads of bumper stickers displaying the enigmatic statement that "The Goddess is Dancing". I had no idea what this advertising campaign was all about, so I put together my own preferred explanation.

 

The Goddess is Dancing

 

Far from the powdered sand-tracks

in dunes dry beyond ages,

past unwatered acacias

where the white cockatoos roost

and make their protests to the sky;

further than old explorers' graffiti trees,

watched carefully by eagles

but unseen by human eyes,

the goddess is dancing.

 

Dervish-whirled in steel-blue,

trailing electric coats of fire,

the majesty of her being

brings the grip of Earth

to a spindle of flashing gold,

beyond artifice or uncertainty.

 

This fountain of ravages

reaches to shake the Abyss,

where the ancient seabeds

roll and crack, and awaits the careless,

under the desert's mantle, to share with her

in the Dance of the Angels.

 

Chris Hubbard

Perth. 2017