Mountain Ash
Driving that way now, you think:
it's almost two years ago,
those February fires - wildfire -
destroyed these miles of bush, two towns -
Kinglake, Marysville - lives,
livelihoods, livestock, wildlife,
burnt through this valley of tall trees -
mountain ash, eucalyptus regnans -
to the Steavenson Falls,
old favourite 'beauty spot'.
Here any weekend you could park your car,
walk the last winding path upstream
to the rocks and the high platform
where the falls came down all white
to the deep pool at the base,
flowed on into the valley,
and powered a generator! -
which lit the falls at night!
All a ruin now, except the falls
fed from a high plateau, is it?
(A steep side track, only for the agile,
leads to the upper lookout.)
Driving through devastation,
you've been noting new life:
houses going up on burnt-out sites,
blackened tree-trunks sprouting green all over -
here are the falls, always living.
Rivers, lakes elsewhere were dry for years -
in these mountains water survived,
found its way to the rock face,
tumbled white white white
to the deep deep pool.
This is it, the place of renewal -
water, and regnans seeded in the ash.
Max Richards
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