Daughter Of The Drought

• Faith Anderson-Smith, Grade 6
• Poetry
• 2018

‘I love a sunburnt country’, someone once wrote
But three years into a drought, I have lost all my hope!
Kids always write in the dust thinking it’s such a big game
But what they don’t know is, it means there hasn’t been any rain!
The tree that was once about, is now shrivelled up due to drought
The paddock was green many years ago, but the crops don’t even grow!
The fish in the aquarium don’t know about the drought
But the fish in the river think all the water has run out!
The sun beams down onto the ground and burns anything that is around
The paddock that was once green, now has no grass to be seen!
My dad works on the farm all day, but my mum cries a lot and says, “It’s okay.”