Giants

by Peter Moltoni

The trail begins its rise across the width of kwongan scrub,
meanders through a stand of wattle, bumps against a nub
of granite, disappears and re-emerges as a score
incised across the stretch of shoulder rising to the tor.
The wisp of track conflates with scrub and scree. I train my glass,
resist the reflex tremor, tweak the focus, and the pass
emerges from the blur. The inner giant leaps. I sweep
the scope along the climbing path and find the gathered heap
of stones we built to mark our pause atop the sharp ascent,
a final bonding labour that remains as monument
to him — my father, tall as mountains, stronger than a tree,
enduring as the hoary bluff that wrested him from me.
 
I pause to estimate the distance, calculate the time,
refuse the nagging giant voice and lean into the climb.


Peter Moltoni has accumulated over 60 poetry awards and recognitions at various levels in national poetry competitions. His work has appeared in Galloping On, The Finishing Post, Free XpresSion, Metverse Muse, Inside Out, the ezines Worm and Ozpoet’s Treasury, and various other competition-associated publications. A selection of his poems, Views From My Window, was published by Access Press in 2000.
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Pat Jones
Published 2 January 2011