Carpet Of Colour Poem by Lindsay Laurie

The long years are harsh where the hot sun does burn
on the sand hills and plains when seasons won't turn
where saltbush and samphire do somehow survive
and through these hot days there seems little alive.

But shade in the she-oaks can offer relief
for creatures surviving who still hold belief
the outback's not dying though is tinder dry…
then cotton-wool clouds start to build in the sky.

And when it gets humid and balmy at night
the sunrise is red with the new dawning light
and leaves get up dancing and float on the breeze
ants start to scurry and thunder does tease.

There's change on the way and a scent in the air
and storm birds are singing to make all aware
that drought may be over and soon there'll be rain
the outback will flourish ‘til drought comes again.

Now pastel pink earth starts to darken to red
as it quenches it's thirst on the deluge ahead
the creek beds awake from their slumber for years
and billabongs form behind quick rising weirs.

The pans and the lowlands are holding their fill
and outstation tanks are now starting to spill
so comes a new dawn from a heartbreaking scene
when almost like magic the land turns to green.

Where a land is vindictive and can be unkind
where water is life, and with man undermined
where vastness is changing from sleeping repose
the buds are now bursting and now they disclose…

…a rainbow that travels so long with the eye
in a landscape rebirth, to thanks from the sky
I'm taking a stroll through a live daisy chain
in a carpet of colour that follows the rain.