The Myth Of The Ghost Gum

• Rebecca Hoffman, Grade 4, Elanora Heights Primary School
• Poetry
• 2014

Finalist in the 'Write As Rain 2014' competition

There it lay beyond the sea,
The silvery leaves of the ghost gum tree.
There is a myth, of this tree,
An animal, of great dignity, that will roam the underworld,
For eternity.
It has soft paws and quite small toes,
With sharp claws, and a velvety nose.
It has pointy ears and a warm soft pouch,
The wombat, is what I’m talking about.
One day, a fire came, killing everything in it’s path,
But, the wombat, oh so sane, dug a hole beneath it’s wrath.
But, alas the wombat died, between the roots of the ghost gum tree.
Somehow, the ghost gum still survived,
And now, on the anniversary of the wombat’s demise,
The ghost gum turns as white as the spirit, of the wombat.