Governor declares
our city is in drought –
barefoot
in the falling rain
happy I don’t believe
oh there’s
carbon in the air
and the levee is dry
for the climate
is a changin’
sky don’t cry!
trees looking up to you
are dying
from your tears
that drop as acid rain
ribbon gum next door
attacked by chainsaws –
I leave the house
to dull the pain
with tea and cake and poetry
prose
keeps the insane, sane –
after I’m underground
I’ll have no use for words
earth churns winter into spring
out of tombs
and sepulchres
the wildwood grows
fertilised
by forgotten griefs
seeds
blown to foreign lands
burrowing deep
into black lava sands
a hybrid survives
Australian airman
‘neath English turf
Since
1941
‘greater love hath no man’
pulling me down
the cries of living ghosts –
mankind
with war and bombs
sets the earth on fire
scarred
by broken glass
my playground
rubble and ruin
the bomb sites of London
ashes, ashes
fallen on snow
the mulberry tree
blooms again –
nature changes, never dies
crunching frost
in the glow of dawn
and the full moon
hanging out up there
with Jupiter and Venus
