Robyn Cormack: “My Suffering Country – 2020″
My sunburnt country is in trouble
The land of sweeping plains
Of majestic towering gum trees
Is going up in flames.
The heatwave is relentless
The rains are staying away
The skies are bloody sunsets
At the end of every day.
LAKE TABOURIE, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 04: Residents look on as flames burn through bush on January 04, 2020 in Lake Tabourie, Australia. A state of emergency has been declared across NSW with dangerous fire conditions forecast for Saturday, as more than 140 bushfires continue to burn. There have been eight confirmed deaths in NSW since Monday 30 December. 1365 homes have been lost, while 3.6 million hectares have been burnt this fire season. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
The firies are exhausted
The army is drafted in
The battle rages on each day
Pray to God they win.
Above the flames and swelling smoke
Are the pitiless blue skies
Not a drop of blessed rain
More tears fall from our eyes.
Fire is not a stranger here
Nature needs it to unfold
But not on this matchless scale
Causing loss and death untold.
Lives are lost and homes destroyed
“Someone” must be to blame
Let’s all abuse a politician
They are usually “fair game”.
The tragic blackened forests
Silhouetted in constant sun,
The smoking shrouded mountains
Relief? There comes none.
This wilful, lavish land of ours
This opal hearted land
Is on its knees in misery
How much more can she stand?
The rains, of course, will come again
There will be an end to drought
Fire and flames will all be quenched
Of that there is no doubt.
Homes and towns will be rebuilt,
That is the Aussie way,
Albeit with broken aching hearts
Will they mend? Who can say?
But there is another heavy toll
My very soul weeps at the cost
Our unique and precious wildlife
Destroyed, and burned and lost.
Our bushland will recover
There will be that haze of green
But our unique and precious wildlife,
Will it ever more be seen?
Robyn Cormack …………….. 2nd January 2020
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SOME ILLUSTRATIVE SCENES taken from this article …….. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2020/01/photos-australia-bushfire-catastrophe/604492/
TOPSHOT – Smoke from a burnt tree rises next to a gutted house in Quaama in Australia’s New South Wales state on January 6, 2020. – Reserve troops were deployed to fire-ravaged regions across three Australian states on January 6 after a torrid weekend that turned swathes of land into smouldering, blackened hellscapes. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP) (Photo by SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)
TOPSHOT – A military helicopter flies above a burning woodchip mill in Eden, in Australia’s New South Wales state on January 6, 2020. – January 5 brought milder conditions, including some rainfall in New South Wales and neighbouring Victoria state, but some communities were still under threat from out-of-control blazes, particularly in and around the town of Eden in New South Wales near the Victorian border. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP) (Photo by SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Nancy Allen and Brian Allen stand outside the house as high winds push smoke and ash from the Currowan Fire towards Nowra, New South Wales, Australia January 4, 2020. REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – RC219E9IA30G
Burned animal carcasses lie along the road after bushfires swept through Batlow, New South Wales, Australia January 5, 2020 in this still image obtained from social media video taken through a car window. Video created January 5, 2020. The New Batlow Hotel via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT – RC27AE9Y9OA7
A burning gum tree is felled to stop it from falling on a car in Corbago, as bushfires continue in New South Wales, Australia January 5, 2020. REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy – RC2M9E98MG31
In this image released Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020, from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in Gippsland, Australia, a massive smoke rises from wildfires burning in East Gippsland, Victoria. Thousands of tourists are fleeing Australia’s wildfire-ravaged eastern coast ahead of worsening conditions as the military started to evacuate people trapped on the shore further south. Cooler weather has aided firefighting and allowed people to replenish supplies. (Dale Appleton/DELWP via AP)
A kangaroo is seen in bushland surrounded by smoke haze early morning in Canberra, Australia, January 5, 2020. AAP Image/Lukas Coch via
TOPSHOT – Cattle stand in a field under a red sky caused by bushfires in Greendale on the outskirts of Bega, in Australia’s New South Wales state on January 5, 2020. – Australians on January 5 counted the cost from a day of catastrophic bushfires that caused “extensive damage” across swathes of the country and took the death toll from the long-running crisis to 24. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP) (Photo by SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)
