POEM-A-DAY APRIL 2012

Day 5 – something before my time

Rusted
(after watching Australia: The Time Traveller’s Guide, Parts 1 & 2)

Red
the soil of my country
where lichens bled
and chemistry
turned sand
to iron, zinc, silver, lead.

Even now
saltbush claims
old ocean beds
and where I walk
I see an arid future
where the past
is spread.

Old land, old earth:
they say here
you can see the birth
of living forms
that thrived
where was a dearth
of oxygen and H2O
and all we deem has worth.

Is it dead?
Crossing by train
I feel a certain dread.
But in the mining town
let red soil run through my hands
and feel the heat
of living earth instead.