First draft of something that dragged me from my bed tooearly this morning. 
I blame yougary, because it is (or will be) the end piece to the bushfire 
set of poems, along the lines (I think) that he suggested.

C&C welcomed, as always, and I'll be glad to move on from  a slightly 
traumatic topic.

~~~~~~~~~~
don't think about
~~~~~~~~~~

and in the end

when the last naked flame is doused
and the fires are done
when even the roots and peat
have stopped burning
beneath the ground
and the rise of smoke
is not a threat
but the sign of a man
with charcoal and soot
spread across hands and face
who is at his rest with a cigarette

when finally
we have shot the last beast
burned or starving
and rebuilt the fences
around the long paddock
again
settled the insurance
to replace the houses and the homes
turned back from volunteer
to farmer or townie
worker or unemployed
wife or husband

as we stare at the devastation
take our collective deep breaths
and brace ourselves
to endure once more
we can try then
perhaps
not to think
of fire

or the sound in the night
of static on the radio
preceding a call-out
for assistance at lightning strikes
or outbreaks of grass

not to think about
the sparseness of pasture
and the tinder-dry scrub
or the fires last year
and the one before

and the one before

for gods sake don't contemplate the drought
that may never end
that might break us like nothing
has broken us
ever before




and don't think of next year

~

Frank

The Tales of Faust poetry page can be found at: 
http://www.tales-of-faust.com/





>From: Gary Blankenship <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Sub - Weather from the West
>Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 07:40:35 -0800
>
>we get our weather from the West
>the heat rises there
>the cool descends
>from Perth
>across the Nullabor
>until Adelaide
>then through Bordertown
>
>Frank, vg read and congrats for the Wild POTM.
>
>The series is coming along fine.  I hope you see a publisher for it.
>
>Gary
>
>
>Feb CE Chaffin, Celebrations and Blessings at:
>http://gardawg.homestead.com/gardawg.html --- Writer's Hood at
>http://www.writershood.com/... Poets for Peace.... ˇPoemas sí, balas no!


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