Cooper's Creek
DIG
3FT NW

The party of
BURKE AND WILLS
1861

It's a long way off
across that desert
from Cooper's Creek
North
and back again to a television set
carving
DIG
+++
MT HOPELESS
Burke, King, Wills
Burke gone
Wills gone
King.

Throughout the journey
the carved
DIG
or
LIII
B.
+++
At Cooper's Creek
Brahe waited
carved
DIG
3FT NW
APR 21 1861.

Burke, Wills, King
DUG
ate
wrote message
stored it 3FT NW
9 hours after Brahe deserted.
They carved
nothing.

Brahe and Wright
revisiting
camped under the tree that read
DIG
3FT NW

and did not
DIG
+++
Burke, WIlls, King
within sight of MT HOPELESS

King as instructed,
left Burke dead
under open sky
pistol in R hand.

Burke told King
DO NOT DIG
DO NOT BURY.