November 13 - 19, 2016: Issue 289
Ode To Our Natural World
Ode To Our Natural World
which may soon fade with the introduction of the new land-clearing laws...
A past,
Of glass,
Shattered,
Fractured,
Poisoned from within,
Massacred by sin,
An empire of treachery and betrayal, Summoned from tortured rubble.
Look inside,
At the demons you hide,
And the past your kind has unravelled,
At the distance your evil has travelled,
Drift into dreams of a buried era,
When sapphire oceans were sparkling clear,
Stars were seen,
The world was clean,
Deep in that memory,
A beckoning melody,
Cicadas singing on ghost gum trees,
Galahs gliding on a Summer breeze,
A hissing, hushing, racing, rushing,
Of rivers and streams gracefully gushing,
The sky a cerulean canvas, blotched with splatters of creamy clouds,
Possum hollows and wombat holes shaded by leafy, green shrouds,
Pearly beaches and tumbling waves,
Jewels and gems and opaline caves,
Wrapped in the arms of the sun’s warm caress,
And blades of grass stooping with dew-drop duress,
A slow chant,
The hum of the land,
Burn it down,
Build a town,
Strangle it with smog and smoke,
Let it die, let it choke.
Sacred ground where you trespass,
And build your city of shattered glass.
by Kayleigh Greig (age 13)
