Today’s Daily Prompt asked for free associations with the words
home, soil, rain.
My home has not burnt down in the last few weeks, but several homes in south-east Australia have been in the path of merciless bushfires, and now some people have nowhere to lay their heads in peace.
Photo: A large 40,000 hectare bush fire is burning in the Warrumbungle National Park. Fires have destroyed more than 30 homes in New South Wales. (FILE:AAP)
The soil in my yard is dry and a large crack has appeared in the ground at the side of the house. The lawn that grew in spring has died. In open farmland and bushy forest, the long grassy stalks are thirsty brown fire fuel.
In 1908 Dorothea Mackellar published a poem about this country, which many of us think of in weeks like these. It’s called My Country and is famous for its line ‘I love a sunburnt country’. A couple of later stanzas are on my mind:
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart around us,
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold –
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze…
