Inside Ayers Rock Analysis

Inside Ayers Rock is lit

with paired fluorescent lights

on steel pillars supporting the ceiling

of haze-blue marquee cloth

high above the non-slip pavers.

Curving around the cafeteria

throughout vast inner space

is a Milky way of plastic chairs

in foursomes around tables

all the way to the truck drivers' enclave.

Dusted coolabah trees grow to the ceiling,

TVs talk in gassy colours, and

round the walls are Outback shop fronts:

the Beehive Bookshop for brochures,

Casual Clobber, the bottled Country Kitchen

and the sheet-iron Dreamtime Experience

that is turned off at night.

A high bank of medal-ribbony

lolly jars preside over

island counters like opened crates,

one labelled White Mugs, and covered with them.

A two-dimensional policeman

discourages shoplifting of gifts

and near the entrance, where you pay

for fuel, there stands a tribal man

in rib-paint and pubic tassel.

It is all gentle and kind.

In beyond the children's playworld

there are fossils, like crumpled

old drawings of creatures in rock.

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