Francis Duggan

A bright and sunny morning and amongst the flowering trees
The familiar low toned buzzing of the nectar gathering bees
The pale eyed crow is cawing and the magpie is on song
And the house sparrows familiar chirpings one never can get wrong.

A morning in December a week from Christmas day
And the nearby newly mown paddocks scent sweetly of fresh hay
And the kookaburras laughter is carrying in the breeze
Today will be a warm one of twenty eight degrees.

The farm dam near empty the roadside drain is dry
We've not had heavy rainfall since early in July
The warm sun and drying winds it affects can be seen for miles around
And ants of every shape and size crawl on the sun-baked ground.

Another bright and sunny morning and such mornings now not rare
And the melodious grey shrike thrush whistles his fresh and lovely air
Just two weeks from January 1 and the birth of a new year
In December in Victoria in the Southern Hemisphere.