Summer Months in Australia

Smoke clouds settle uneasily

Over the mountain range

Artistic smudges of a worried artisan

That makes us all

Watchers on the edge

Standing tall

To gauge the direction of winds

Turning up or blowing down

Rain clouds heavy

With the farmers’ blessing;

Although plenty

Can turn to curse;

That will extinguish the heat.

January and February

Are nervous months

Of fire, wind and flood

Never in between

It seems

The complacent are tested

The tough are bested

But take it in their stride

To rise again and ride out

The storms of hail, fire, wind and flood

There is no room for doubts

Just sheer tenacity and giving it all

Until that last gasp

When the Creator calls you home

You are here to stay

Broken or whole

Burnt out or flooded out.

Grass grows again as do trees

Houses can be rebuilt

Stronger and more wisely

Than before.
For those who were lost in years past

Would not expect any less

And in their memories sweet

You build anew

With no ending, only the beginning….