Australia - A Quick Cameo

Most streets are empty – it is hot
Harsh sunlight causes fruit to rot
Bush fires rage round Cudlee Creek
With Woodside threatened as we speak …

A python by a Queensland pool
Twice bites a little boy, pre-school
Four deadly metres in the grass …
Each step you take may be your last!

Nation of suburbs, city sprawl,
Huge landmass with not much at all
Few rivers, barren plains, big sky
Sunsets that memories untie …

Pasturelands where lives are tough
As for water – there is not enough
The ’Ten-Pound POM’ days are long gone
First Nation voices now grow strong.

Australia Fair stands on its own
Not only whites can call it home
It wears a multi-cultured coat
Though the Queen still beams from dollar note!

(c) Poet in the woods 2019