My australia

• Gem Rothwell, Grade 8
• Poetry
• 2006

My Australia,
With its floating, flowing, sandy plains,
Sliding to meet the grasslands.
Deafening silence.

The big trees whisper together,
Laughing at the little ones.
Emerald canopies, rusty nails.
Brittle.

Towering cliffs, deadend.
Overlooking greedy oceans, swallowing more than it should.
Evaporating quicker than we thought,
Disappearing, too late to save.

Below the surface.
Ladders leading lower,
Green and swaying.
Like the tentacles of aquamarine life.

Glowing, glittering, glistening.
Sea bed.
Carpeted with jewels of every kind.
A rainbow of colours.

Undiscovered species, mysterious.
Whaling boats, discovered.
Mournful cries for Help.
Save the Whales.

Hazy, burning.
Forest fires engulfing, licking at the dry environment.
Crackling. Charcoal. Embers.
All that is remaining, dust.
Gone with the wind.
My Australia.