Rain comes to Australia

Crickets sing in the wet grass

behind the garden tap.

Crickets sing in the geraniums’

joyous greenery.

Rain strafes the streets of the cities.

Hail like golf balls pelts the lawns.

Rain douses the fires of Australia.

Rain quenches the drought-dry heart of Australia.

Rain saves us. Thunder and lightning 

spell the word of God.

Rain has come to douse the fires of Australia.

Thank God for the rain.

Smoke

A pall descended on St Kilda 

has bleached the high summer day.

White cirrus floats in a white sky

on a breeze from the east – Gippsland ablaze.

The scent of wood smoke appals

stealing through the summer night

in at the window from the burning forest.

Out of control the bushfires

burn the country down.

Animals scream to extinction

and the trees and the trees and the towns

Mallacoota, Mago, Cobargo

melted into the ground.

I cannot stand the scent of a winter hearth

and a billion creatures dead in agony.

I cannot count the cost of a hard heart

that loves a lump of coal more than a planet.