Status Updates From A far-flung life

First lines | Out here, it’s red earth for as far as the eye can see. Overhead, the sun plows an unending blue sky. Under dust-green mulga, a lizard seeks shade and shadow; ants engineer heat-defying nests; kangaroos suck moisture from tender leaves, ears swiveling to locate a distant rumble: on the straight vermilion line that cleaves the sparse trees, a lone truck is approaching.