THINGS THAT NEVER CHANGE

Sixteen years, six squillion
kilometers. Thirteen, now thirty.
Vast hard packed desert spaces.
Luxury; a cordless landline.
Geeky shoes, coy smiles,

shy voices, bind together
across satellite radio lessons
best technology through
the years; still post mix CD’s
Love to share cheese,

pure joys, we decree.
Love of dogs, our other best
friends, sleeping on the floor
together, shared beds whenever.
Thousands of photographs,

broken cameras can’t
delete memories, laughs
fade never. They crackle
across space and time, vast
like the red dirt expanses

we were borne of; laughs
splinter across visits, snow
magic and cold days layer upon
years of dry mud cracked skin
and thousands of k’s traced

across our country of back roads
and bitumen. Ten hour bus trips
and beat out Camrys. Calls,
education department emails,
1 cent texts, time apart. Parallel

adventures, relationships
boys, other countries,
mental illness, birth,
grief deep, tears, canyons,
we didn’t know topography

when we were thirteen on the claypan.
All we knew was each other’s phone number.

---

Ava Stephens, 29, Rural NSW - Australia ✯

“ - escaped small town girl, geologist and hobby poet - ”